The Chosen Ones: Heaven\'s Call, 1
by D-chan2
Summary: Seven teens find themselves in the middle of an ancient war between faeries and demons, but for what reason, and why do they have powers? Please R/R!
1. The Legend

The Legend none none Normal none none 1 1 2001-08-29T00:42:00Z 2001-08-29T00:43:00Z 2 406 2317 19 4 2845 9.3821 

The Legend

Life.  It can be as simple as a single celled organism or as complex as a multi-cellular being.  And everyday it is created.  Everyday it is destroyed.  

The mystery of life has always haunted the human soul.  Some people spend their entire lives searching for the answer.  How did we get here?  Why?  Those are just a few of the questions that go through our minds nearly every day.  But, what would you do if suddenly an entirely new world opened up to you filled with endless possibilities?  What would you do if you were about to be let in on the greatest secret of all time?  The secret of the Goddess.

Life can only be born from other life, so knowing that the Goddess is alive should be no surprise.  For she is very real and very alive.  A being of a cosmic race would be so.

For quite some time, the Goddess used to drift between the many planes of reality and matter in complete solitude.  She was alone in a world so completely dynamic, that not even the most genius of all men could even ponder her existence on a meekly comprehensible level.  But she grew bored as all things do.  She longed for that companionship that we as humans have and know very well.  So she had a son.  She created Validus, her very own son.  

Validus was given the same powers as his mother possessed.  But he was also given something that she did not have.  The power to destroy.  A wave of corruption swept the earth at the time of Validus's birth.  It only lasted for a brief time, but it would end up being the omen that would predict her downfall.

As Validus grew in mind and power, he began to turn.  The Goddess feared the worst, so she created the Faeries, prophets of her virtuousness.  The Faeries attempted to sway to humans of Earth, who had begun to follow in the footsteps of Validus.  They had little success, so the Goddess regretfully decided to banish her son to Hell, a barren wasteland set on a plane beneath that of the Earth.  She isolated this plane with a powerful barrier so he would not be able to leave it for an undetermined amount of time.  

As time wore on, the barrier would weaken leaving Validus's minions, called Demons, able to pass freely between the planes of Hell and earth.  But still Validus could not leave.  He was still confined to Hell, for the barrier in its weakened state, concentrated all its power it had left on him.

The Demons on the outside, however, found the Goddess had met her own demise of sorts.  Nearly all of her powers had been drained.  Her last act was to select a certain band of humans and give them all of her remaining powers as well as the gift of destruction.  They would use these powers to destroy Validus bringing him and his Demons to an apocalyptic end.  These humans would be named the "Chosen Ones", the sovereign saviors of earth.


	2. Meet Our Heroes

Johnny woke up with a start none none Normal none none 1 0 2001-08-29T00:50:00Z 2001-08-29T00:50:00Z 9 2744 15643 130 31 19210 9.3821 

Johnny woke up with a start.  He breathed deeply as he wiped off the sweat that was streaming down his brow.  It took a few seconds for him to register where he was.  He was in a tent with one of his best friends, Truman James, in a clearing in the woods behind their high school, James Madison High.  They were frequently there.  On cool summer nights, like this one, they would camp out.

The woods were owned by Mr. Larson, a local farmer.  Johnny and Truman, along with their other best friends, who were in another tent next to them, Allora, Brystol, and Morrigan, did odd jobs during the summer in return for use of his woods.

Johnny was still shaken up, breathing heavily, still.  His mind turned to his dream, which was the reason for his rising.  It was really quite weird.  He had actually had the dream many times before.  It all started in early summer, and had continued throughout and up to now, a week before the start of school.  He shook his head in frustration.  It was always the same dream.  Always.  It would begin with a woman.  Only she was very small, had purple butterfly wings, and wore a small green dress.  Johnny called her Tinkerbell, only this girl had curly brown hair, not blonde.  Then he saw all of his friends and him together, plus three people he could barely see.  They were wearing weird clothes that, as far as he could tell,were usually reserved for comic book heroes. And, they all seemed to be fighting something.  That something, he could not see.  Then fire engulfed them and it cut to the Egyptian pyramids glimmering magnificently in the desert sun.  And he then would wake up.

Johnny looked down at Truman who was tossing and turning in his baby blue sleeping bag.  Johnny wondered if Truman was having the same dream.

He shook his head, ran his fingers through his brown spiky hair.  The spikes had been dyed blonde.  He got up, and decided to go over to the girls' tent.  They frequently stayed up all night talking and Johnny decided to join them.  He quietly unzipped his tent as to not wake Truman, and walked outside to find the sky was filled with twinkling stars.  He looked at them briefly, to clear his mind, then preceded to the girls' tent.

"Hey.  You guys up?" he asked, crouching in front of the tent.

"Yeah," Allora answered from inside.

He unzipped the front and carefully crawled in.

Allora sat Indian-style and waved to Johnny while Morrigan lounged, leaning on the back of the tent.  "Hey," they both welcomed as Johnny made his way in.

"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting your girl talk," he apologized.  "But, Truman's asleep and I'm extremely bored."

Allora poked a sleeping Brystol.  Her dark brown hair was sprawled around her tanned face.  "It's okay.  Anyways, Brystol fell asleep, too."

 "Not a surprise.  They both seem to sleep through everything," Morrigan laughed.

Johnny nodded in agreement as he tried to make himself more comfortable.  He was very cramped.  He was already six foot five at the age of sixteen, and was very muscular.  It didn't help that Allora and Morrigan were both tall for their age, as well.

Allora was always one of Johnny's best friends.  They had known each other since they were babies.  And for as long as he had known her, she always had long, wavy, crayon red hair, and big, bright turquoise blue eyes.  She was on the muscular side for a girl, but she was a hockey player, after all, just as Johnny and Morrigan were.  Morrigan, though, was also a ballet dancer.  She had a thin build and long, straight blonde hair that was streaked with purple highlights and intense green eyes.

"We were talking about this dream we both had.  Isn't it weird we both had the same dream?" Morrigan said as she drew her covers tighter. 

"What was it about?" Johnny choked, thinking back to his own dream.

"Uh…well it's sort of weird," Allora began.  "It starts out with this Faerie.  Then we're all here, in the clearing, in these weird outfits, and we're battling something we can't see.  Then I saw all this lightning—"

"—and I saw a megalith," Morrigan interrupted.

"A large boulder," Allora explained, looking at Johnny's usual confused expression.  "Anyway, then we're—"

"In Egypt, right?" Johnny finished for her.

"You mean you had the same dream?" Morrigan gaped.

"Yep.  Almost every night all summer."

"Us too."

There was an odd silence that seemed to last for hours as the three tried to come up with their own personal reasons for this odd coincidence.  

"That's really weird," Allora stated, trying to break the ice.

"I think so, too," Johnny agreed solemnly.

Morrigan looked down at Brystol.  "You think?"

"I don't know.  We'll have to ask her and Truman in the morning," Allora decided.

All three sat, crammed and thoroughly confused.

After another period of eerie silence, Johnny abruptly stood up. "I think I'm going to get some air.  I'll be back, though, so save me some room."

The girls smiled as Johnny left the tent.  "Okay," said Morrigan.

Johnny looked up into the starry night sky once again, then at each of the large tents, which housed his friends.  He laughed slightly to himself.  It was really quite amazing they were all even here tonight.  Earlier that day tensions were running high.  Brystol had just broken up with her boyfriend and Morrigan had had been having trouble with her own boyfriend as of late.  Both were extremely on edge.  Plus, Truman had once again been rejected by the Pittsburgh Center for Art and Design, a local art school.  He had been applying for sometime for their architecture program, but had been turned down each time.  He seemed to be taking this rejection the hardest of all.  All of this had left everyone a bit at odds with each other.  Only Johnny and Allora seemed not to be living in their own little depressions.  When they all got together earlier, this campout seemed impossible.

          Johnny remembered it well, after all, it was only a few hours ago.  It had all started when the mail arrived.  Johnny was staying over Truman's house and had been sleeping soundly on Truman's daybed when Mrs. James came crashing in.

          "Truman!  Truman!  They responded!" she shouted.

          Truman jumped out of bed and grabbed the envelope his mother was brandishing.

          He ripped it open and quickly read through.  His wide smile slowly transformed into a sullen frown as he finished.  "Rejected again," he whimpered, running his hands through his light brown hair.

          By now Johnny had finally shaken off the last remnants of sleep.  He got up and walked to Truman's side.  "It's okay man, there's always next time."

          "Yes, Truman, next time," his mother comforted, trying to hold back tears.

          "No.  There won't be a next time," Truman said dejectedly.

          "Don't say things like that honey.  It's a hard program to get into," tears were now noticeably streaming down her face.

          "Hey, tell you what, I'll call everybody up and we'll take you out for the day.  We'll do all the stuff you like," Johnny offered happily.

          Truman said nothing in response.

          "We'll go miniature golfing," Johnny smiled.

          "Alright," Truman replied, his spirits obviously lifted by this.

          Mrs. James smiled at Johnny, mouthing "Thank you".  Johnny got up and grabbed the phone by Truman's bed.  He first dialed Brystol.

          "Hello?" she answered.

          "Hey Brys.  Um, if you're not doing anything, we were all going to try and cheer up Truman today.  Miniature golfing, stuff like that."

          Brystol tried desperately to muffle her crying.  "I don't know John.  I don't think I'm up for a day out."

          "Why?" Johnny asked.

          "I just broke up with Mike," she wailed, finally letting it all go.

          Johnny always felt uncomfortable when people cried.  "Okay then.  You sure?"

          There was a momentary silence.  "I guess I'll go.  Couldn't hurt."

          "Good.  Come over to Truman's in about an hour."

          "I'll see you," Brystol said, hanging up.

          "How about I get breakfast going," Mrs. James decided.  "Truman, would you like to help?"

          Truman shrugged.  "I guess.  What do you want Johnny?"

          Johnny thought for a second.  "Just a breakfast shake I suppose.  I'm still in training.  Coach wants me to be at optimum level for Granger this year.  And that means lots of dieting before school starts up."

          Truman nodded and left the room.  Johnny then called Allora and Morrigan, who both agreed to meet in about an hour at Truman's.

          Johnny walked down to eat breakfast with Truman and Mrs. James.  He drank his breakfast shake, bitterly watching Truman and Mrs. James eat heaps of pancakes and fluffy scrambled eggs, not to mention thick links of sausage.

          "Just have some pancakes already," Truman demanded, looking at Johnny, who was now literally salivating.

          "No, I shouldn't.  But I guess I could have some scrambled eggs."

          Mrs. James smiled and handed the large plate over to Johnny.  "I guess some sausage wouldn't hurt.  And I suppose a pancake or two isn't a big deal."

          When breakfast had finally finished, an hour later, Johnny had eaten six pancakes, at least eight sausage links, and Mrs. James had to scramble three more eggs on top of the two Johnny had already eaten.

          "Some diet, huh?" Truman commented.

          Johnny blushed.

          They heard knocking at the door.  All three walked over and answered.  "Hey, you all made it," Johnny welcomed.

          Brystol, Morrigan, and Allora all walked in.

          "Well, I have some wash to take care of.  I'll see you all later," Mrs. James explained.

          "Bye Mrs. James," Allora called.

          "Hey, sorry about the rejection," Morrigan said soothingly.

          "Yeah, thanks.  I'll get in eventually, I guess."

          "You will," Allora retorted, seeming quite sure.

          "Hey, where's your dad?" Brystol asked.

          "He went to work early.  He has this big Ireland project coming up," Truman explained.

          "Oh.  Where does your dad work anyway?" Brystol continued.

          "I don't know.  Mom says it's top secret.  I don't even think she knows."

          "That's sort of weird.  What kind of work does he do?"

          "Look Brystol, I don't know.  Can we just get going?" Truman answered, obviously annoyed.

          "Okay, okay.  Just making conversation."

          "It's okay Tru.  It's no big deal, right?" Morrigan asked, looking worried.

          "Of course not.  Let's just get going."

          They walked out to the front lawn.  "Shall we take Brystol's van then?" Allora suggested.

          But everyone was already beginning to pile in, so Allora followed.  Brystol had just gotten her license and, and of late, could only drive her mom's van.  It fit all five friends comfortably and this had pretty much made Brystol the group chauffer.

          "Where to first?" Brystol asked, looking in the rear view mirror.

          "Uh, well, the miniature golf place isn't opened yet," Johnny said, looking at his watch.  "So I guess we could catch an early movie."

          Brystol began driving to the movie theater.  Her arms seemed to be shaking slightly as she drove.

          "You okay, Brys?" Allora asked.

          "Fine, fine.  I'm fine," Brystol answered, her voice shaking as much as her arms.

          "So, what movie you want to see?" Morrigan asked.

          "I dunno.  We'll see," Truman answered.

          They reached the multiplex a few minutes later.  No one was really speaking too much.  Allora and Johnny were too afraid to bring up hockey, as Brystol ex-boyfriend Mike was the starting goalie on the team.  They didn't want to remind Brystol about him.

          They got out. Truman looked over the long list of movies playing.  "How about _Ravers_?"

          "Alright," Allora replied sweetly, though she really had no desire to see a movie about people who go to raves.

          "Whatever," Brystol responded, acting as if she could care less.

          Everyone began walking into the theater.  Everyone, that is, except Morrigan.

          "What's wrong Morrigan?" Johnny asked.

          "It's just that raves.  Well, I don't know, Bernard likes raves."

          Johnny rolled his eyes.  Though Morrigan hadn't broken up with Bernard, an extremely rich and artsy junior, the relationship had been under quite a strain.  Bernard felt it wasn't physical enough and Morrigan felt they needed to get to know each other better.  Lately they had been fighting a lot.

          "Anything else you want to see?" Allora asked.

          "No.  I guess mini golf is open by now, though,"

          They all piled back into the van.  Now Morrigan was not speaking at all.  She seemed near tears.  They reached the miniature golf course in total silence.  They all got out and paid for their club and ball.  To make it quicker, they split into two groups.  Johnny, Allora, and Truman, leaving the two depressed girls by themselves.  Allora, Truman, and Johnny waited for Brystol and Morrigan to finish the first hole.

          "So, school starts next week," Allora said, attempting to start up a conversation.

          "Yep, hockey too," Johnny added.

          "Yeah, I'm excited about that," Allora continued.

          "Think we match up well in our preseason tournament?" Johnny asked.

          The preseason tournament was four teams from their area competing in a ten game season of sorts.  The top two teams at the end face off against each other.  The winner has the number one ranking in the division going into the season.  JM had never not been in the final, and yet, had never won.  Their arch rival, neighboring Granger High, had defeated them each time.

          "Well, I think so," Truman answered.

          Morrigan and Brystol had now moved on to hole two.  Allora got up first and putted.  She, in typical Allora fashion, got a hole in one.  Then Truman took his turn.  It took him three shots, which was par.  Then it was Johnny's turn up.  Johnny had always had a bit of a problem with mini golf.  He seemed to put too much force on his puts.  Considering he was probably the most muscular incoming tenth grader around, this wasn't a surprise.  Allora and Truman moved to, what they felt, was a safe distance.  Johnny took a few practice strokes.  Then he took a swing at the ball.  You could tell in his face he was trying with all his might not to put any force behind it.  But try as he might the ball still flew high in the air.  Johnny cringed, knowing exactly where it was going.  The ball hit Truman smack in the head, creating a large purple bruise near his temple.  Truman fell back.

          "Oh no!" Allora yelled.

          Johnny ran to his side.  "Real sorry, Truman.  I didn't mean to."

          "I know," Truman answered.  He got up, trying to pretend nothing had happened.

          Morrigan and Brystol had noticed and ran over.

          "You okay?" Morrigan asked, temporarily forgetting Bernard.

          "Yeah, I'm fine.  I think I should go home, though.  Get some ice on it."

          "No, I think it would be best if I took a look at it," Allora said.

          Allora, who planned on becoming a surgeon, was not only the star center of the hockey team, she was also the assistant to the team trainer.  She helped out all the school teams and had become an expert on most common sports injuries.

          They all helped get Truman into the back of the van.  Brystol began driving quickly to the high school.  When she reached the parking lot she headed for the dirt road that led to the Ice Palace, the school's ice rink.

          "No.  I left all my stuff in the gymnasium for the cheerleaders and girls' volleyball."

          Brystol, instead, turned the van around and headed for the large gymnasium on the other side of the parking lot.  She stopped, upon arrival, with a loud screech of tires.

          "That bitch!" she screamed.

          "What are you talking about…oh," Johnny said, who was sitting in the front, upon seeing Brystol's ex-boyfriend, Mike McCall, sitting with the head cheerleader, Bunnie Ramone, beneath an apple tree a few hundred feet away.

          "She stole yet another boyfriend off of me that little slut!" Brystol fumed.

          "You don't know that—well, okay, maybe now you know that," Johnny said as he saw Bunnie plant a big kiss on Mike.

          "I know this isn't good news Brys, but we have to get Truman inside," Allora said, getting out of the car.

          Brystol grumbled and got out as well.  She held the gym door open for the others as they helped Truman in.  Allora ran to the office on the side of the gym and came back with a first aid kit.  She began to treat Truman's bruise, taking pads and medical tape out expertly.  She carefully taped the pad to Truman's temple.

          "Thanks Allora," Truman said.

          "You're welcome.  Now, Johnny, didn't you say something about a campout tonight?"

          Johnny looked around uneasily.  "Well… after recent events…I figured it wasn't going to happen, you know, with everyone all depressed."

          "No, we'll do it," Morrigan piped up, obviously knowing what Johnny was talking about.

          "Okay.  Meet in the clearing tonight at six."

          Everyone agreed.  They all sat and waited for Truman to regain control of himself.  It didn't take long.  So afterwards, Brystol dropped them all off.

          Johnny was the last to be left off.  "See you tonight Brystol."

          "Bye Johnny," she returned.

          Johnny walked up to his front door, thinking to himself.  He wasn't completely convinced that this campout was possible.  And now that it was official, he had the sneaking suspicion it would end up horribly.  But, here he was.

Light.  First there was always light.  Then came a burst of brilliant lightning and a ferocious crack of thunder that echoed through the misty night sky.  

Lydia tossed her body sharply, allowing her curly auburn hair to fall messily around her face and onto her satiny pillow.  She pulled her sheets around her porcelain-like body and shivered.  She new this dream all too well.  But was it really just a dream?  She could nearly feel the sunny warmth of the light and the electrical current of the lightning.  And she knew what would be next.  

Suddenly, she was engulfed in a dangerous ocean with waves crashing all about her as she began to be swallowed among them.  Her breath shortened and she began to choke as she gasped for air.  But then, miraculously, she could feel herself being lifted, far above the waves to be thrown into a violent spinning gust of wind.  And after what seemed like an eternity of twirling, Lydia stopped.  

At a first glance, she seemed to be in a forest of sorts, at second, she realized it was a jungle.  And not ten feet away was a snake with deadly venom dripping from its fangs along with the blood of its most recent prey.  Naturally, like in all nightmares, the snake spotted Lydia and began to slither quickly towards her.  She screamed at herself to run, but her legs wouldn't move.  And just as the snake was about to strike, the ground fell from beneath it and the snake was buried under the earth.  She clutched her sheets tighter as the ground gave way from beneath her as well.  She let out a shrill cry as she fell.  The fires of the earth reached out to her as she came nearer and nearer to the bottom.  And just as she was about to hit, everything turned black.  She became very cold and shivered once more.

Then Lydia saw them.  There were eight of them in a large clearing in a forest.  They all seemed to be human.  Three of which were girls, four of which were boys, and one whose form was shrouded in a blanket of fog.

"Teach them.  Show them the way," a weary voice called.

And she woke up.


	3. The Next Morning

The morning seemed to take forever to arrive none none Normal none none 1 0 2001-08-29T00:55:00Z 2001-08-29T00:55:00Z 3 737 4202 35 8 5160 9.3821 

The morning seemed to take forever to arrive.  Never had Johnny, Allora, and Morrigan had such a horrible night.  All three, entirely too scared to go back to sleep, had decided to pull an all-nighter.  And by the time the sun finally rose, they were exhausted.  

"Do you really think we should ask them?" Johnny inquired uncertainly.

Morrigan shook her head vigorously.  "Yes!  Don't you want to know?  I know I do."

Johnny sighed, obviously frustrated.  "Well, yeah.  But I don't think we should take this as serious as we have been."

Allora nodded.  "I think Johnny's right.  Our actions last night were a bit immature.  I mean, we are all really close friends.  We grew up together, after all.  And a lot of studies nowadays say that friends dreaming similar dreams isn't that unusual."

 "Damn you and your logic, Allora," Morrigan scolded.  "You're right.  Friends can share dreams on occasion.  But all summer?  I think not.   I think this means something."

"Well, anyways," Allora began, attempting to change the subject to calm down Morrigan, "Johnny, you need to leave, I would like to get dressed for the day."

"Me, too," Morrigan agreed.  "So leave, because you are most certainly not getting a free show."

Johnny smiled and unzipped the girls' tent and went back to his own to get dressed.  When he arrived there, though, he found Truman had already been awake.

"There you are!" Truman exclaimed, already dressed.

"Yes, here I am," Johnny sighed, rummaging through his black duffle bag for his jeans.

"Where were you?" asked Truman as he brushed his hair.

"Oh, I stayed up talking with Allora and Morrigan last night," he answered as he triumphantly held up his jeans in front of him.

"Oh, that's cool.  I had a horrible sleep, however.  I had this dream that I've—"

"—been having all summer?" Johnny interjected.  "Yes, I know.  We have to talk about that when the girls are done getting dressed."

Truman stared at Johnny wide-eyed as Johnny gave Truman an even weirder look.  "Would you mind turning around?  I'd like to put my jeans on, now."

"Oh, yeah, right."

When everyone had finally finished getting dressed (and awakened), they all gathered outside the tents.

"What is this all about?" Brystol demanded her chocolate brown eyes flaring.  "I can't believe you woke me up!"

"It's about the dream you've been having all summer."  Morrigan grinned.

"What?  How did you know?" Brystol shrieked.

"We've all been having the same dream as you, all summer," Allora stated.

"Yeah, all of us.  Allora, Morrigan, Truman, and myself," Johnny declared.

"That is creepy…" Brystol said, disgusted..

"Not as creepy as this," Morriagn laughed as she pulled an ant out of Brystol's hair.  

Brystol's reaction was immediate.  "Ah!  Get it off! I HATE BUGS!"

"Really?"  Morrigan inquired as she began to chase Brystol around the tents, bug still in hand.

"YES!  AH! STOP IT.  YOU'RE A BITCH, MORRIGAN!"  Brystol screamed.

Allora sighed.  "So much for conversation.  Well, I suppose I should start cleaning up the girls' tent.  It's not like I can count on those two for help."

"Okay, Al," Johnny replied.  He turned to Truman.  "We'll talk later."

"Gotcha."

Johnny then called out to Morrigan, "Your house next Saturday, right?"

Morriagn stopped chasing Brystol to face Johnny.  "Yeah.  And Bernard will be there as well.  We made up.  Is Truman positive he can't come?"

"Yeah, his dad is finally coming back from Ireland."

"Okay, then."  Morrigan stuck her head into the girls' tent.  "I have a date, Allora, can you take my stuff to your house?"

Allora grinned.  "Yeah, I knew that was coming.  Not a problem."

"Okay.  Great.  Thanks.  I'll see ya.  Bye!"

"Bye!"

Morrigan got out of the tent and raised a waving hand.  "I'm outta' here, guys.  Bye!"

"Bye!"

The clouds were beautiful in the morning Trey decided as he fixated his enchanted gaze at them from outside the 747's window. 

 He sighed.  _Why did we have to move?  To Pennsylvania of all places!  How boring!_  Then he remembered.  His cousin, Drake, had been getting in trouble in Vegas.  Drugs and girls weren't exactly a sometimes thing with him anymore and his wild behavior hadn't helped, either.  So, Drake's family decided to move.  And naturally, if his cousin's family had to move, his did, too.

Lately he'd really been dreading his mother and aunt's closeness.  When he was little, he didn't mind, because then he was Drake's best friend.  But now, he just felt like he was Drake's sidekick.  Well at least he'd be able to make new friends other than Drake.  He hoped.

Trey had trouble being social with people he didn't know.  And his hair didn't help.  How many people have natural blue hair?  He cursed silently to himself.  He'd tried many times to dye it.  But the dye would never take.  _I am the most unlucky person alive_.  Not only did he have blue hair, but lately, he'd felt like a freak when Drake and him had discovered they'd been having the same dream all summer.  Drake.  Oh how he wished he could be rid of him sometimes.  And now he'd be moving next to him yet again.  

Trey sat back and sighed once more.  


	4. The First Day of School

Brystol Cummings looked into the girls' bathroom mirror at James Madison High School none none Normal none none 2 2 2001-08-29T01:00:00Z 2001-08-29T01:00:00Z 8 4016 22894 190 45 28115 9.3821 

Brystol Cummings looked into the girls' bathroom mirror at James Madison High School.  She delicately ran her fingers through her shoulder length, perfectly styled, dark-brown hair.  She posed several times and announced as if she were the queen of the world, "God, I am gorgeous!" 

          She looked to the girl next to her who was obviously used to hearing such arrogant comments.  "Allora, a little support please," moaned Brystol, who was still fussing with her hair.

Really, she was quite gorgeous.  She was of medium height and had a nicely proportioned figure, which made her rather popular with the guys. It also helped that she was a cheerleader, and a good one at that.

          Allora shook her head. "Stop fussing already.  This is only school, after all."  She shrugged.  "Besides, you look fine to me," she said casually as she began to open the bathroom door.

          "Allora, wait," called Brystol.  "I'm not ready yet!"

          Allora turned around and glared at Brystol with laughing crystal-blue eyes.  "Then will you tell me what is so important?"

          Brystol squealed and batted her long, dark eyelashes.  "Allora, it's the first day of school.  I mean, it's like a clean slate.  You have to make a good impression.  We're still, unfortunately, underclassmen.  Besides, supposedly there're two new boys coming.  Who knows, they might be cute." 

          Allora rolled her eyes.  "Well, you're right about one thing.  It is the first day of school, and we should make a good first impression.  That's why I am going to leave now so I won't be late for History."

          "You, late?  That would like stop time or something," Brystol said sarcastically.

          Allora began to leave.

          "You know, if you play your cards right, one of these new kids might end up liking you."

          "New kids come every year.  Exactly what is so special about these two?" Allora asked.

          "Yes and every year they get cuter.  Do the math, Allora, you are good at that.  This year's croup should be dreamy," Brystol informed.

"Well then, by all means do your hair.  But I am a little more interested in getting to History." Allora said, leaving.

 Brystol shook her head and narrowed her eyes as she watched Allora leave the bathroom.  _Some day I hope Allora realizes that boys were sent to this earth to do more than play hockey with her..._

          Morrigan Downs packed her books into her locker.  She had a tired expression on her face and looked extremely depressed.  She felt as if she might fall over any second.  It was a real surprise when she felt a tapping on her shoulder, as she was usually a loner at school.  Morrigan turned around.  A guy named Travis Folkner laughed.  "Oh, NO!  Somebody call a priest.  It's the she-devil!"

          Morrigan shook her head as she watched him run down the hall screaming and hurried back to packing her books.  When she finished packing, she ran her fingers through her hair, and began to hurry down the hall to her first class.  Not two seconds later, though, she heard her name again.  Ready to be laughed at, she ignored it, not realizing it was Truman.  "Morrigan!" he called out again.

          She turned to Truman.  He wore a burgundy and gray sweater vest over a pastel pink dress shirt and khaki pants.  She shielded her eyes.  He may be her friend, but his sense of fashion was absolutely appalling to her gothic taste.  "Morrigan, there you are."  Truman hugged Morrigan.  "How are you holding up?  Are you okay?"  

          Morrigan sighed.  "Yeah... another guy down the drain due to the rumor that Goth girls are easy..."

          Truman looked at her sympathetically.  "Hon, you'll find the right guy someday.  Trust me..."

          Truman hugged Morrigan again and Morrigan hugged back with a fake smile.  "Thanks, Tru, but you know how I feel about being called 'hon'."

          Truman glared at Morrigan angrily with his honey brown eyes flaring.  "And you know how I feel about being called 'Tru'.  Oh, it's okay.  In your time of need you may call me anything you like... except..."

          Morrigan eyed Truman, "Okay, Tru.  No fruit cake cracks."

          Truman gave Morrigan a nasty look.  "Okay, you've had your fun.  You can shut up now."

          Morrigan laughed and ruffled his light brown hair.  Truman once again gave the evil eye, then sighed.  Both hugged one more time.

          Johnny Maffeo walked down the halls of JM.  He was the god of the tenth grade.  All girls wanted him and all guys wanted to be him.  He was the best defenseman on the hockey team during his freshman year, and he had supposedly worked out all summer.  The coach really liked Johnny and it was expected of him to get on the team this year as well as be the assistant captain.  He continued to walk and smile until he came to a girl named Sally.

          "Sally," asked Johnny.  "Have you seen Allora?"

          Sally stared at Johnny in disbelief.  The hazel-eyed hunk _actually knew her name!_

          "I saw her... I saw... with Brystol... girls'... girls' bathroom..."

          Johnny smiled and patted Sally on the head.  "Thanks, Sally."

          Sally fell back against her locker and sighed.

          Principal Eggert walked into his office.  There he saw two young men seated in front of his desk.  "Hello, gentlemen," he said.

          The two young men stared.

          Eggert sighed.  _They look like trouble...Then again they all look like trouble.  Damn school.  He seated himself at his desk, cracked his knuckles, and began to look through their papers.  __Cousins... Parents moved to get away from the "busy life" of Las Vegas...What a crock..._

He looked to the one seated to his left.  He had a black trench coat on that covered most of his clothes, which also seemed to be black.  He wore dark sunglasses over his eyes, and his hair was a dark shade of brown.  "And which one are you?" asked Eggert.

The boy removed his sunglasses to reveal that he had one blue eye and one green eye.  "I'm Drake Grey.  And who are you?"

Eggert nearly choked at the remark.  "Well, I am your new Principal, Mr. Eggert."

Drake smirked and looked to the boy next to him.  "What the hell type of a name is Eggert?"

Eggert looked even more shocked.  Drake placed his glasses back on his face.  "You know son," said Eggert trying to stay calm,  "school rules prohibit sun-glasses on inside the building." 

Drake shrugged.

"And," Eggert continued, "When your locker is assigned, your trench has to go, too."

The small office became still and quiet.  Eggert cleared his throat.  He looked at the other boy whose name was Trey Calisto.  Trey had on baggy carpenter jeans, a loose black tee with the _Blue Oyster Cult_ on the front, a black flannel tied around his waist, a silver loop earring on his left ear, a sliver cartilage earring on the same ear, sapphire blue eyes, and remarkable dark blue hair.

Eggert looked at the shirt with a blank stare.  "Is that your band or something?  All of you seem to have a band these days."

Trey seemed very confused.  "No.  They kind of broke up a while ago."

"Oh.  I'm sorry about that.  You'll find another band to join.  JM has a great band program."

Trey just stared at him in utter astonishment.

Eggert's eyes fell on Trey's blue hair.  He suddenly looked depressed.  "You know son, that blue had better be out of your hair within two weeks."

Trey blushed horrendously and Drake let out a long exasperated sigh.  

"What?" questioned Eggert.

Drake shrugged and answered, "He can't."

"Oh," said Eggert.  "It's permanent?"

Drake shook his head.  "No.  It's natural."

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" asked Eggert.

"Well..." replied Drake, in a sardonic manner.

"Err... no, sir.  But, everything Drake said was true..." Trey finally whispered in total embarrassment.

Eggert raised an eyebrow at Trey.  "You two seriously expect me to believe that?"

Trey nodded.  _I am so not going to fit in here… But it's either try or be Drake's sidekick for the rest of my life…_

"Son, blue hair is NOT humanly possible."

Drake glared at Eggert, "Then you're calling my cousin an alien?"

"No.  I'm calling both of you liars," he said coolly.

"Sir," Trey finally spoke up.  "Sir, you do realize hair color is controlled by chromosomes?  And it really it isn't as uncommon as you may think not to have red, brown, or blonde hair from birth.  What you just said, well you would certainly be the laughing stock of the scientific community.  I don't know how else to explain it, but if you have to, you can call my parents.  They'll vouch for me.  Drake's parents, too"

          Eggert gave Trey a blank look.  He stared down at Trey's transcript.  _Imagine…nearly straight C's in everything, and he has the nerve to speak to me like I'm stupid.  Well, at least he has the A's in Biology and Shop.  But still, those Las Vegas schools are easy.  I can't wait for his next report card.  We'll see who's being smug then.  "I suppose I can take your word for it."  Eggert cleared his throat.  "I welcome you to James Madison High School.  Hopefully you will have a productive stay here," Eggert stared at Drake.  "Anyway, I'll get one of our students to give you a tour, and then they can drop you off at Guidance to get your schedules taken care of."_

          Trey nodded shyly, still embarrassed.  Drake didn't bother making eye contact.

          Eggert picked up the phone.  "Page Allora Colleen, please."

          Allora sat in U.S. History very bored.  She twirled her red hair around her finger, as she decided to write a note to Morrigan, who sat behind her.  As she reached for a blank piece of paper, a folded one fell onto her desk from behind her.  Allora smiled.  _Morrigan always beats me._

          She unfolded the note:

_Dear Allora,_

_Ugh! History! Well at least you seem interested in it.  Anyway, Truman said we're meeting after hockey in the usual spot.  He said it's important.  I'll be the judge of that._

_~Morrigan_

"Allora Colleen, please report to the Principal's office," a voice boomed over the intercom as she finished reading the note.

Allora got up and walked down the hall to the office, but not before giving Morrigan a reassuring nod.  She walked in, smiling at the secretary.

"I was paged," Allora said sweetly.

The secretary gave Allora a warm grin.  "Principal Eggert would like to see you in his office." 

Allora walked over to Eggert's office door and opened it.  She went in.  "You needed me?"

"Yes," Eggert began.  "Can you give Mr. Grey and Mr. Calisto here a tour?  Afterwards drop them off at Guidance."

Allora nodded.  She looked at the two boys and smiled again.  One of them had, of all things, shockingly blue hair, the other seemed disinterested altogether.  "Let's go then."

Both boys got up.  "I'm Trey," the blue-haired boy said.  He seemed nervous.

"I'm Drake," the other one said, trying to seem cool or superior or something.

Allora frowned.  The last thing she wanted was to deal with a cocky jerk on the first day of school.

"I'm Allora," she replied, wishing she was still in History class.

After all three had left the principal's office, they entered the lobby, which was very large.  "This is our trophy case," Allora explained, pointing to the side the office was on.  "As you can see, JM is very successful in athletics.  Of course we hope to add to it this year.  We're looking for a hockey state championship.  I have my fingers crossed, of course."

"Hockey?" Trey asked.  "I play hockey.  I mean I did back in Las Vegas.  I used to play a lot of street hockey."

"Well, we play on ice of course," Allora replied, looking at Trey skeptically, noticing he didn't seem the hockey type.

"I played on ice, too," Trey added defensively, looking slightly hurt.

"Well then.  I suppose you'll have to try out.  They're after school today.  How about you?" Allora asked, looking in the direction of Drake.

Drake sneered.  "Hockey tryouts already?  What the hell type of school is this?  Hockey is not in September.  Haven't you guys heard of football?" Drake said, taking his sunglasses off.

Allora frowned.  "At JM, we take hockey very seriously as well as our neighboring school districts. We like to get an early start at the sport and have quite a number of scrimmages before the real season begins.  It's also exceedingly difficult to get on the team.  Only the very best make it, and Coach Ryder makes absolutely no exceptions." She gave Drake a harsh glare.  "Do you think you have it in you?"

"Perhaps… "

"Well if you're lucky enough to get on the team, I would be your teammate.  I'm the starting center and captain, or at least I was last year, which was my freshman year.  So with some luck, I'll make it again this year," she declared proudly.  Normally, Allora was never so brash, but Drake kept getting worse and worse.  

"Girls on the hockey team?  I suppose there isn't enough interest in the sport for guys to come out.  Do you people even play games, or is it just for 'fun'?"  Drake nastily enquired.

Allora, now at her wit's end with Drake, pointed a finger towards the guidance office door.  "You know, I suppose the tour is over for you.  Guidance is over there.  You can get your schedule."

Drake began to walk away.  

"Hope to see you at the tryouts," Allora called to him.

Drake didn't turn around.

"What is with him?" Allora asked Trey, putting her hands on her hips. 

"He doesn't really have great people skills.  He's usually not like that, well, maybe sometimes.  But, most girls don't stand up for themselves like you did.  I gotta say that I'm impressed."  Trey beamed a light shade of pink.  He had really begun to admire Allora's confidence.

Allora grinned.  "Well, not to be rude, but I am most certainly not your typically girl.  I like to be in control.  Call me a control freak if you will," she stated as she raised an eyebrow.

Trey laughed, as well as Allora.  Then he snuck a peak in the open guidance office door to see Drake arguing with the counselor.  "Things aren't so hot for Drake in there."

Allora peeked in, just in time to see Drake mouthing "asshole" to Trey.  "Serves him right," she said haughtily.

"I suppose so…" Trey felt slightly bad about abandoning Drake like that. 

"Don't worry about him," Allora instructed as she grabbed Trey's arm.  "Let's get on with the tour.  I think we'll go to the basement first.  That's where the weight room and shops are."

But suddenly he didn't feel bad at all.  Trey was determined to enjoy his stay at JM, and this Allora was certainly going to help.

The James Madison lunchroom was extremely crowded.  Morrigan had to push through hordes of kids to find a seat.  She had a particularly hard time getting through a group of cheerleaders, who didn't seem to notice her trying to shove her way through.

"God, do you people always have to travel in packs?" Morrigan said, exasperated.

They all gave her a mean look, whispering to each other as they parted.  Morrigan could only guess what it was.  The rumor was flying around the school with amazing speed.  The rumor itself was that Morrigan had been raped.  Luckily, though she hadn't been.  Her boyfriend, Bernard, had gotten Morrigan drunk and, well nothing happened but it almost did.  The couple had been at her house and things were getting spicy.  If it weren't for Johnny and Allora stopping over, things probably would have gone all the way.  Morrigan hadn't really gotten over it, it had happened only three days ago.  Thank goodness Bernard left JM for a private art school in the city.  Though Morrigan originally planned to leave with him, she was more than glad she didn't.  

She went to the only table that was empty and sat directly in the middle.  She grinned to herself.  _Now we'll have the table all to ourselves._

_ Morrigan began scanning the cafeteria for Allora.  It didn't take long to spot her vibrant red hair.  She had a crazed expression on her face and it looked as if she might freak at any moment.  _

_Man, there are so many people.  This new freshmen class is too big.  Ugh!  Where is Morrigan?  Allora looked around.  No Morrigan.  But suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw her lounging back at a deserted table.  She laughed to herself.  __That's Morrigan for you... Allora made her way to Morrigan and sat down.  _

"Hey, Morr.  Are we still meeting after the hockey tryouts?"

"You bet.  Brystol... what are you doing here?"

Both Allora and Morrigan turned to watch Brystol sit across from them.

"Hi guys.  I thought I'd sit with you today."

Allora and Morrigan exchanged glances.  Allora sighed, "Who are you ticked at or who's ticked at you?"

Brystol shrugged.  "No one that I can think of."

Morrigan growled.  "Shouldn't you be kissing Miss Cheerleading Captain Bunnie's ass?  Why aren't you with your little cheer-friends?"  

Brystol folded her arms, "Why aren't you with a band of depressed, somber Goths?  We all have to expand our horizons."

Morrigan rolled her eyes.

"By the way, Morrigan, how are you taking the break-up?  I mean, he _did_ practically try to like rape you...Or at least that's the word around school."

Allora closed her eyes, waiting for the bomb to detonate, as Morrigan got right in Brystol's face.  

Morrigan fumed.  "How do you think I'm taking it?  I mean, doesn't the expression on my face just show it all?  How about my TONE OF VOICE?"

"Oh, I thought it was just PMS," Brystol mocked.

With that, Morrigan lunged for Brystol's throat. 

"Morrigan!  Settle!"  Allora yelled as she barely managed to pull her back from a shrieking Brystol.

"Don't ever say that again, Brys."

Brystol shook her head, trying to catch her breath.  "Jeez.  I think it is that time of the month.  It's not like I said anything about Bernard.  Oh, oops," Brystol mouthed, looking exaggeratingly regretful.

"You're evil.  You already knew about Morrigan's situation., no rumor told you that.  You can be so vicious," Allora said, giving Brystol a strange look.

"You can shut up, Allora," Brystol screamed, her eyes now fiery with anger.  "I saw you with Mike today.  You were flirting with him in study hall.  God, it's only been a week since I dumped him.  You'd think you'd be a better friend than that.  Some nerve you have, flirting with my ex."

"Wait, I was sure you were dumped, not the other way around," Morrigan said, smiling.

Brystol laughed.  "Me, dumped?  Like that'll ever happen."

"We were talking about tryouts today.  That's all."  Allora was appalled that Brystol accusing her of flirting with her ex-boyfriend.     

Brystol thought for a second.  "Oh yeah, that's right.  Boys are just hockey buds for you, right?"

Morrigan had to laugh, and Allora almost nodded in agreement, but then realized they were making fun of her.

Allora sighed.  "You guys are too much."

          Drake and Trey scanned the lunchroom.  Only now had they gotten their school-bought lunches.  Trey pulled Drake across the room.  "Where could she be?" said Trey to himself.

          Drake eyed Trey. "Did you see a girl?"

          Trey blushed.  "Well, yeah.  She's over there." Trey pointed to a table at the far end of the cafeteria.

          Drake looked to where Trey was motioning.  "Yeah.  The purple in her blond hair really brings out her green eyes... and her build isn't bad either.  She's thin, but not necessarily petite.  I would guess she's about five foot six or five foot seven." 

          Trey shook his head, slightly disgusted.  "Uh, that's enough.  You're weird.  Anyways, that's not her.  The girl Eggert had give us a tour is the girl I'm talking about.  Or should I say the girl who gave me a tour?"

          Drake rolled his eyes, "Ha ha.  Very funny, Trey.  Her name was Allora, right?  Yeah she was okay, I guess.  Although, it's not like you could tell much about her figure with that stupid jersey on.  I bet she's a lesbian.  Female athletes," Drake shuddered slightly, "give me the creeps.  Now the babe next to her..."

          Trey and Drake looked at each other and smiled.  Then Drake began to pull Trey over towards where the girls were sitting.  "Follow me and learn."

          Drake and Trey sat at the table directly across from Allora, Morrigan, and Brystol.  Drake pulled out an extra pair of sunglasses and handed them to Trey.  "Now we can observe without them ever knowing."

          Trey shrugged, put his hands under his chin, and ever so conspicuously, stared directly at Allora.

          "So what do you guys think?" asked Brystol.

          Both Morrigan and Allora replied in a monotone voice, "Of what?"

          "My new outfit?" Brystol said standing up to show them she was wearing a pink blouse and Capri pants.

          "It's nice," Allora answered, though she couldn't care less.

          Morrigan simply mumbled something about "preps" under her breath.

          Brystol smiled.  "Great!  I had second thoughts about it this morning.  I wasn't sure if it was too late in the year for such a summery outfit.  But I think it works."

          Then Brystol looked at Allora and seemed to forget about her outfit.  "You know that new guy, Trey Calisto, has been staring at you all period."

          The three girls turned to see Trey staring at Allora with a funny grin on his face.

Allora looked confused, "So? Maybe he wants to join the hockey team.  I was talking to him about it this morning."

          Brystol shook her head in disagreement.  "No.  Boys don't stare at girls because they want to join the hockey team, even if you are the infamous Allora Colleen.  Anyways, in study hall today, he was asking me all these questions about you.  It's so sweet.  He's kind of cute, too.  I mean, if you like that grungy look.  The other one is just plain weird looking.  You know who he kind of reminds me of?"  Brystol looked at Morrigan meaningfully.

          "Say it and die!" Morrigan screamed, through gritted teeth.

          Brystol got up, and smiled.  "Bernard!" she said, quickly walking toward the cheerleader table.

          Morrigan looked at her with a stony-eyed glare.  "Stupid cheer-witch."

          "Don't worry about it.  She just does it to get a rise out of you."

          Morrigan seemed to calm.  "Anyway, about that Trey kid," she teased, eyeing Allora.

          "Oh shut up!  This morning I gave him a tour of the school.  We talked a bit and found we had a few things in common, like hockey.  He said he's coming to tryouts today.  He's probably just finding things out about me because he sees me as competition.  That's all."

          "Oh drop the act.  You like him, too."

          "Yeah, okay.  He's so hot.  Oh my God!  I don't know if I'll be able to control myself today at tryouts," Allora sneered, sarcastically.

          "Yeah well it doesn't matter if you're distracted at tryouts anyway.  You could make the team in your sleep.  Coach Ryder practically has your name as well as Johnny's tattooed to his ass.  Me on the other hand…" Morrigan suddenly seemed worried.

          "Oh you drop the act!  You know you'll make it!"

          Morrigan winked.  "Hey, I'm not.  Anyway, that kid next to Trey is hot!  I suppose he does look a bit like Bernard, but I bet he's different.  Just look at his eyes.  One's blue, and one's green!  How sexy,"  Morrigan seemed starry eyed as she gazed at Drake.

          "Oh God!  He's a misogynistic pig.  Besides, he's from Las Vegas, so he's probably a chronic gambler or an alcoholic."  Allora glared at him disapprovingly.  _I can't believe she's into him   I hope she knows what's she's getting herself into._

          "Okay then… we'll just see about that.  I'm going to talk to him," Morrigan gave Allora a devilish smirk, then got up and sauntered over to Drake and Trey.

          "Hi, I'm Morrigan," she said, giving Drake a longing stare.

          Drake stared back at her, almost smiling.  "Hi Morrigan.  I'm Drake."

          "I've already heard a lot about you from Allora," Morrigan said, still with that longing stare.

          "I'm sure it was all good, then." Drake folded his arms casually, thoroughly enjoying this girl's sudden interest.

"Of course.  She said you were from Las Vegas.  But she didn't mention if you would be trying out for the hockey team or not."

          "That all depends."

          "On what?"

          "If you are," Drake replied coyly.

          Morrigan giggled, though she thought it was slightly a turnoff.  She was never a fan of coyness.  "I am."

          "Then I most definitely will."

          "And I suppose I'll see you there, too… Trey was it?"

          Trey nodded and whispered under his breath, "I thought female athletes were lesbians."

Drake smiled sweetly at Morrigan as she walked back to her lunch table, while giving Trey the finger from underneath the table.  

Truman was now sitting with Allora.  She looked up.  "How did it go?" she asked, a noticeable amount of malice in her voice.

          "Fine, I guess.  I didn't really get a woman hater vibe, but he wasn't great at hitting on me, either."

          "What a pity," Truman sneered.

          "Oh be quiet, Tru.  At least I can get a boyfriend, unlike you, who's never dated in his life."  Morrigan narrowed her eyebrows at Truman.

          "Why, you!  I didn't mean anything cruel, Morrigan," Truman began defensively.  "I just think you're trying to rush into another relationship to get over Bernard, which isn't the way to go."

"Truman's got a point, Morrigan," Allora agreed.  "And might I add that this guy is a jerk.  He's no good, I'm telling you.  In the end, he'll be just like Bernard."

Now Morrigan had been having a horrible day.  First it was Travis Folkner, then the rumor, then Brystol.   But getting grief from her two best friends was the last straw.  "Allora, how can you tell all about a guy's dating habits from one day?  And on the first day of school, yet?  Perhaps he was a bit moody to you, but unlike you, things aren't handed to people like me and him.  This is JM, the school were unique is a sin, we're talking about.  I'd be pissed if I were him too.  Who knows how long he was chewed out for all his imperfections in Eggert's office this morning?"

"Eggert isn't that bad, Morrigan.  And I don't think a professional educator would find it wise to scare his students on their first day of school.  And speaking of bad, JM isn't as shitty as you make it out to be."  Allora's temper was really flaring.  Incase Morrigan hadn't noticed, she hadn't had the greatest day, either.  Which was in fact, Drakes fault.

"You're right, Al.  A professional educator-especially one at JM-would not want to scare new students on the first day of school-if they were jock material.  I'll admit, JM is a good school, but only for certain people.  People like you, Allora.  But, not people me."  With that, Morrigan ran off to the girls' bathroom.  

Allora got up to follow her.   But she didn't because of two things.  The first was that Truman stopped her saying that Morrigan needed time to herself, and the second was Johnny, who appeared out of nowhere and looked a bit excited.

 "Finally, I've been looking for you.  I really need to speak with you privately," he said, hinting towards Truman.

          "What's up?" she asked as she got up and walked to a corner of the cafeteria with him.

"It's about hockey tryouts today." Johnny spoke in a grave tone, which was very unlike him.

          "Yeah, what about them?"

          "I heard that Granger's sending a spy to check out our new talent.  They heard this Calisto kid is coming from Las Vegas.  He's supposedly very good.  I think I remember seeing him play last year at Nationals.  He was pretty good."

          "What?" Allora yelled.  The lunchroom became quiet all of a sudden.  Allora blushed.  "Excuse me?  Trey Calisto?" she whispered.

          People began talking once again.  "Yeah, you know him?"

          "Kind of."  Allora was suddenly very interested in this Trey character.  "What position did he play?  How did his team do?"

Johnny looked at Allora slightly cockeyed.  "How am I supposed to remember?  This is me we're talking about.  I think he played a wing."  Then Johnny understood.  "Oh, I see, checking out the competition?  Or are you?"  Johnny winked and elbowed Allora.   

Allora ignored what Johnny was insinuating  "You know, who cares about Granger spies?  They can't base any kind of game plan off of a tryout," Allora observed, trying to change the subject.

          Johnny rolled his eyes.  "I guess you're right.  I'll see you at tryouts, then."

          Johnny walked away, as Allora looked over at Trey in a new light.


	5. Hockey Tryouts and Powers Don't Mix

"Welcome everyone to tryouts this year for the JM Ice Demons.  Only twenty-five of you will leave here today on the team," Coach Ryder began.  He looked out on about sixty or so boys and two girls, nearly all of them looking extremely nervous.  "Okay then.  Let's start with some drills.  Mike, get in goal."  Brystol's ex-boyfriend, a senior named Mike "the Wall" McCall got up and skated toward the goal.  Mike was one of the best goalies in the state.  "The rest of you get in groups of two and line up for some slap shots." 

          Everyone paired off and got in line.  No one was really talking.  Very few people were guaranteed a spot.  Of course Allora, Morrigan, and Johnny knew they pretty much had one. Allora was the leading scorer as a freshman on the team last year, and Morrigan and Johnny were starting defenders, but they still stayed silent.  They didn't want to seem cocky.  

A few people ahead of them stood Drake and Trey.  Allora was very interested to see Trey in action.  A few minutes later, it was Trey and Drake's turn up.  Trey shot first, it was really nothing special as slap shots go, but this was only the beginning of the tryouts.  Drake's slap shot, however, was amazing.  He had more sheer force behind it than Allora or Johnny had ever seen.  Morrigan was in awe as well.

          As the tryout went on, Trey improved.  He showed amazing speed that rivaled even Allora's, while Drake continued showing his astonishing force, though he seemed rather lazy and slow.  After awhile, Coach Ryder called them all to the center of the rink.

          "I have seen everything each one of you has to offer.  I have to say this is one of the best groups I've had try out.  It will be a difficult decision.  The roster will be up in the school lobby tomorrow morning.  I would like to thank you all for coming out and good luck."

          Everyone staggered away, except for Allora, Morrigan, Johnny, and the designated team manager Truman, who still had some things to discuss.  They all met Brystol outside the rink and walked toward the usual meeting place in the woods behind the school.

Morrigan and Truman walked ahead of the rest of the group.  Morrigan was still slightly peeved at Allora and wanted to get as far away from her as possible.  Her footsteps were graceful and quiet while Truman's footsteps were loud and booming. Truman was clearly nervous about what was going to be said, and Morrigan could sense it.  He had to get his mind off it.  It, of course, was a mystery to everyone but himself.  He decided to make conversation and looked to Morrigan.  "Don't you think that those new guys who tried out today were good?"

          Morrigan nodded and smiled.  "Yeah.  And they were cute, too."  She looked up to the September sky and sighed.

          Truman eyed her suspiciously.  "So what's with the sigh?"

          Morrigan nodded, giggling to herself.  "Well... to put it simply... Drake is extremely hot, but then, you already know that."

          Truman rolled his eyes.  "Yes.  I really should have known."

          "Yes, you should have."  Morrigan laughed and pulled his arm.  "Here we are," she said walking into the lush clearing.  It created almost a perfect circle.  In the middle sat some tree stumps-exactly five of them.  It was amazing how lucky they were to have this place.  It was like a second home.

          Everyone else came into the clearing shortly after, and they all sat on a separate tree stump.

          Truman nodded and gulped.  He tried to make his stride casual looking as he walked to the center of the clearing, but he failed to do so.  "You have to keep this a secret, guys," Truman began.  Everyone urged him to go on.  "Well, you all know how my father was in Ireland for awhile, researching these ancient mounds.  Well...while he was working on some top-secret project, they sort of found something. It appeared to be a portal to another realm or something like that."

          Everyone remained quiet expecting Truman to smile and say everything was a joke, but he didn't.  His voice and posture remained serious and he continued again.  "They would have explored it except what appeared to be demons according to some Celtic legend attacked them and forced them to leave.  Those 'demons' also destroyed most of their records and equipment."

          Everyone frowned and gave Truman ungrateful looks except for Johnny, who seemed confused, as usual.

          Truman folded his arms.  "You guys don't believe me?"

          "Huh?" questioned Allora.  "Are you proposing that this the truth?"

          Truman nodded.  "There are much better things I could be doing rather than standing in the woods, but I felt this was important."

          Brystol rolled her eyes.  "Well, how did you find all this out anyway?"

          "Well this may seem rather stupid, but I went into my dad's office to borrow his stapler and found his files laying open on his desk.  They seemed interesting enough, so I read them."

          Morrigan ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.  "As the resident Wiccan... I'll tell you this much: demons aren't good.  The demons are probably why the mounds were never explored before.  They are vicious, evil creatures.  We can expect a lot of panic and destruction when word of this reaches the public."

          "As the resident normal person, I already know demons aren't good," Brystol said.  She was being oddly derisive today.

          "Cute, really," Morrigan replied in the same mocking tone.

          "Of course there will be panic," said Johnny, ignoring both Brystol and Morrigan.  "But, why do demons care if we see these mounds or not?"

          "Because," explained Morrigan, "there's probably something in those mounds.  Something they don't want us to see."

          Everyone stared at the ground in awe.  "What should we do?" questioned Truman.

          "Wait a minute.  I blanked out for a second.  What are we doing?" asked Johnny.

          Brystol eyed Johnny.  "We haven't gotten that far yet."

          "Oh," replied Johnny sheepishly.

          "We have to do something!" declared Allora.  "I will not stand around while people get hurt!"

          "Do you even know if people are going to get hurt?  Seriously, this is rather stupid," Brystol said, looking around as if there were people listening.

          "You can never know with demons," Morrigan sneered.

          Brystol shrugged.  "I suppose, you're right," she commented, although she looked a bit frightened and was shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

Allora cringed.  "I really hate to say it, but do any of you think all this has anything to do with our dreams?"

"That's right!" exclaimed Truman.

Morrigan frowned.  "Perhaps.  And if it does, I can't exactly say I'm glad.  Our knowledge of this may have put us in danger.  Super natural things like demons can read people much better than even some of the best psychics.  If it's all right with all of you, I have an idea.  I know a protection spell we could use."  She looked at all of her friends.  "Please join hands."

          Drake and Trey stood completely lost in the woods.  "I thought you said they went this way!" screamed Drake in frustration.

          "They did!" Trey yelled back in defense. 

          "Yeah?  Well, where are they?  It's getting dark!"

          "I dunno.  I could have sworn…"

          Drake buried his face in his hands.  "Damn it!  I am never ever following your advice.  I lead now."

          "But..." Trey started.

          "Just shut up and follow me!"  

Trey nodded reluctantly and followed Drake.  They walked for a few minutes until they came to clearing, which gave off an extremely bright glow.

"What's going on?" asked Trey, shielding his eyes.

Drake squinted.  "It's them, and they are chanting something.  I think I've heard that before. Yes, I have.  I think it's supposed to be a protection spell.  They also seem to be creating that freaky-ass light."

Trey pulled his black jean jacket closely around him.  "Should we interrupt them?"

Drake thought for a second.  "No.  Don't.  That could be dangerous.  We might as well join in, though.  But, don't let them see or hear us."

Trey replied with an "okay" and began the chant, as well as Drake.  "Mother, Goddess, give us strength to protect your creations and your land.  Mother, Goddess, give us power to fight the evil, which against we stand," the seven teens repeated the verse twelve times until an even brighter light engulfed them all and the circle broke. 

It was night when the five awoke scared and cold.  Johnny rubbed his eyes and opened them.  He found himself staring up into the star-filled, dark night sky.  He blinked.  _What happened?  He moved his arm and felt it bump into something hard.  He looked next to himself and saw a rock.  He muttered to himself and sat up, rubbing his elbow.  But, the pain woke him up a little more.  Allora was laying a few feet away from him, so he picked up a stick and started poking at her with it.  He kept jabbing at her, but she refused to awaken.  As a last, desperate measure, he shoved the end of the stick up her nose.  Allora woke with a loud snort as she blew the stick out.  She glared angrily at Johnny, who just shrugged at her._

"What in the hell was that about?" she snarled.

"Well, what else was I supposed to do?  You wouldn't get up when I was jabbing you in the ribs," he pouted defensively.

Allora continued to stare at him.  "Did you try speaking?" she asked as she massaged her sore nose.

Johnny looked surprised.  "You're up, so get over it!" he yelled, though he did look apologetic.

Allora stood up and pounded a foot on the ground, and gave Johnny a menacing look.  "How about I stick a stick up your nose?" she screamed crossly.

With that, about five small bolts of lightning flew about the clearing, splitting a few trees in the process.  Allora and Johnny exchanged frightened glances.  After a moment, Johnny cleared his throat and tried to compose himself.  "Uh..." he began, but couldn't finish.  There was nothing to say.  

Allora looked around cautiously and shrugged, a move that she tried to pull off as casual.  "Unexplained phenomenon?" she offered lamely.

"You know what this means, don't you?" asked Morrigan from behind her.

Allora jumped and whirled around.  "Oh, Morr, you're awake."

"Well, something like that is likely to wake up anyone... except for those two," she said as she motioned toward Truman and Brystol, who laid side by side a few feet away, still sleeping soundly.  "Anyhow, I guess our little séance harnessed some supernatural current.  Get mad again."

"What?" asked Allora, slightly confused.

"Just—just get angry again.  I want to see what happens."

Allora looked at her strangely.  "I can't just get mad.  I have to have a reason to be mad."

"Well how about I give you a reason?" Morrigan suddenly seemed to explode.  "Like, you are the most ignorant person in the world!   Do actually think I've forgiven you about the Drake thing yet?  Hardly.  Dammit!" roared Morrigan, and turned off to stalk somewhere.  She would have, too, if the entire ground beneath them hadn't started to rumble and a sharp pillar of stone shot out of the ground a few inches from her foot.  Though the stone wasn't large, it was still alarming.

"Whoa..." she gulped, and stepped back from the pillar slowly.

"EEEEK!" Brystol shrieked, and leapt to her feat.

Allora turned to her calmly.  "Calm down, Brys.  It was an. umm... little earthquake."

Brystol shook her head violently.  "No, no!  It's not that!  I was asleep on the floor of the WOODS!  Dirt and rabid animals and disgusting insects everywhere!  And, my hair is a MESS!"  She picked at a loose strand of hair despairingly.  She looked down, and her eyes widened.  "My cheerleading skirt!  Bunnie is going to have a fit!  This is horrible!"

Allora seemed impatient.  "This isn't the time to talk about Bunnie Ramone.  Didn't you notice what Morrigan just did?"

Brystol's face fell as she attempted to straighten out her hair.  "I just didn't want to believe it."

"Neither did I," Morrigan admitted.  

Allora seemed deep in thought.  "We didn't just get these powers.  They were given to us."

Everyone seemed to agree.  "But why?  And by who?" Johnny asked.  

"Whom, Johnny.  Whom.  Not who, whom," Allora instructed.  Even in times of crisis, good grammar was a must.

Then he looked at Morrigan strangely. "Hey, I remember.  Morrigan gave us these powers.  Didn't she?"

"I certainly did not give you these powers.  When we held the séance, we must have harnessed some super natural current, like I said before.  But, a super natural current has to be powered by something in order for it to exist, and for us to receive powers like these, that 'something' is bound to show up at some point.  So, I guess we'll find out," Morrigan explained, in an almost grave tone.

Brystol grimaced.  "But there's still a much bigger problem.  There is DIRT ON MY SKIRT!" she screamed, and a small ball of light hovered above her head.  She looked up at it and put her hands on her hips.  The clearing quickly filled with giggles and laughter, mocking poor Brystol's somewhat pathetic power.  "I think I got gypped...  But we haven't seen your powers yet," she said, looking at Johnny and then at Truman, who had been awakened by Brystol's ear-piercing scream.

Truman and Johnny exchanged frightened glances.  Bravely, enough, Truman spoke up.  "Well, you'll have to get us mad then," he stated.

"Okay, Tru.  That shouldn't be too hard for you, Tru," Morrigan began with a callous tone of voice.

Truman turned an angry red.  "You know how I feel about being called Tru!"

"Oh, I'm sorry…"  Morrigan was in her glory.  "Tru!  I'm so, so sorry, Tru.  Please forgive me for calling you Tru, Tru." 

Truman's eyes narrowed at Morrigan and a jet of water came out of Truman's palm, drenching his khaki pants.  "Ahh!" he yelped at the top of his lungs until the water stopped streaming.  Then, he turned to Morrigan.  "You know, I think that you enjoyed that."

Morrigan looked at Truman teary eyed.  "Why would you think that?"

Truman looked at Morrigan untrustingly.  "Because, you're Morrigan Downs, girl who takes pleasure at other people's expense."

 "Enough arguing you two.  This is going to be difficult," Allora commanded.  "How about you Johnny?"

Johnny frowned and kicked a rock on the ground, looking disheartened.  "I don't think I got one."

"Well, maybe stupid people don't get powers," Brystol shot, though it seemed to take some effort.

Johnny was very sensitive about his intelligence.  A snarl formed across his normally cheerful face, and then fire shout out of his palms, which were, luckily, aimed at the ground, not at his feet or legs such as the unfortunate Truman had experienced.

Truman quickly tried to get it out with his water jet, but he couldn't seem to get anything to come out.  Brystol grabbed her purse and got out a small spray bottle which had "water" written on it in marker.  She began to spray the fire furiously.  Allora rolled her eyes, grinning to herself.  _What idiots…_  Thinking fast, she ran behind Truman and tried her best to surprise some water out of him.  To everyone's happiness it worked and the fire was out.

Very quickly, though, they all seemed quite sick of finding out their powers.  They just looked at each other, knowing what the other was thinking, and they all began to walk home, which wasn't far for any of them.  Morrigan informed them to meet at her house the next day to discuss things.  Everyone agreed and staggered home.

Drake and Trey were in for it when they awoke.  Trey was piled on top of Drake in a most uncomfortable position.

"Ah!" screamed Drake as he was awakened by an earth tremor to find Trey lying on top of him

Trey rubbed his head and opened his blue eyes.  "Huh?  What's going on?"

"I don't know.  You're the one sleeping on top of me," growled Drake as he pushed Trey away.

Trey landed with an "oomph!".  "What's with you?  That hurt!"

Drake smirked his usual smirk. "I'm sorry..."

Trey shook his head, freeing dirt from his matted bowl-cut.  "Yeah, anyway, what do we do now?  It's nighttime.  And we don't know our way through this forest... How are we supposed to get home?"

"Yeah, well if you hadn't gotten us lost, we'd be fine right now," Drake stated firmly while brushing his trench off.

"Yeah! Well, whose idea was it to follow the girls out here?" exclaimed Trey as he started to get angry.  Suddenly, as if right on cue, a ferocious dust devil appeared right to Trey's left.

Drake's smirk turned upside down.  "What did you just do?" he asked as the mini tornado started to disintegrate.

"I don't know.  What the hell is going on?" shouted Trey, in distress.

"I don't know either. Do you expect me to know everything?  Really," said Drake.

"I think it stopped, though," declared Trey, thoughtfully.

"Thanks for the newsflash, Mr. Obvious," Drake sneered.

"Mr. Obvious, huh?  Well, you know what?  I don't even think Morrigan liked you.  You think you're such a charmer, and you're not!"

Drake's eyes became mad slits.  The air around them turned cold and the moon's light disappeared.  Only a few seconds later, everything was back to normal.

"What was that?"

Drake closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.  "I think the chant thing backfired.  I believe the main goal of it was to gain protection, like I said.  But the form of protection we were given was powers."

"Well if that's true, you certainly have a dumb power."  It got slightly colder and slightly darker.  "I really wouldn't want to cross you in a dark alley.  It might get even darker."

Drake laughed in his usual sardonic manner and they both began walking away, though they had no idea how to get out.

          "We should have left a trail of breadcrumbs or something," Trey suggested.

          "Okay Hansel.  We wouldn't be able to see them anyway."

          They walked for what seemed like forever until they found themselves on school grounds again.  "Finally, thank God we live in walking distance of the school," Drake said.

          They then began to stumble with exhaustion home.


	6. Who Are the Chosen Ones?

Validus closed his dark, dangerous eyes and rubbed his temples.  "This can't be happening.  Where are all these groups of humans with powers coming from?"

Demisses shrugged.  "I don't know, your majesty.  Could it be the Faeries?  Could they be trying to find the Chosen Ones?"

"You know very well that the Faeries know nothing more about the Chosen Ones than we do.  But that could very well be true.  Even if they don't know who the Chosen Ones are, they could still get to them before we do.  We must not allow them to awaken the 'true Chosen Ones'."  Validus's dark gray skin was barely visible in the shadows of which he stood, but just his voice was enough to make Demisses, Validus's second in command, quiver in fear.  "We'll have to kill these humans before they get used to their powers.  If they gain hold of their powers, then the 'true Chosen Ones' may come forth."

"The 'true Chosen Ones'?  Can't any humans be the Chosen Ones?" asked Demisses.

Validus shook his head.  "No.  Only a special group of humans hand selected by the Goddess can be the Chosen ones."

"Are they really that much of a threat to us?" Demisses asked.  

"Demisses, as much as I despise saying this, I will tell you the truth.  If united with the Goddess, they will have more than enough power to destroy myself, along with entire Demon race.  And it especially bothers me that we won't know who they are right away.  And this is because they themselves won't know if they're actually them until they have made the transformation.  And what the transformation is, even I don't know.  But, any humans knowing of our existence is definitely a threat, especially ones with powers."

"Idonea and I'll dispatch some messenger demons at once to take care of the two newest groups," stated Demisses, now very worried about the current situation.

"Good.  We must slim the chances of the Chosen Ones' awakening as much as we can."

Lydia's wide eyes opened abruptly.  She smiled to herself.  She had had a very good dream.  She couldn't remember quite what had happened but it had, thankfully, not been the same dream that had been haunting her for months.  She glanced over at the magical sundial that floated in the air beside her and gasped.  She had slept in!  And today of all days!  She quickly jumped out of bed and threw off her green nightgown and replaced it with her dress of the exact same shade.  She stared into the mirror, which floated next to the sundial and attempted to tame her curly locks.  She resorted to putting them into a tight bun before grabbing her wand and running out of her luxurious bedroom.

The reason she was so mad at herself was that today was the day she would get her group.  Lydia was, after all, a female Faerie, and female Faeries were assigned groups to watch after.  These groups were made up of humans given powers to fight demons and return the Goddess to full strength.  It was the most important ceremony in a Faerie's life.  It made Lydia mad that she overslept, but it didn't surprise her.  She had never been on time.  This wouldn't have been such a big deal if she weren't also a Faerie Royal.  She was born a Faerie Princess and had wished she wasn't probably her entire life.

But today it was a definite perk.  Since she was a Royal, she lived in the Faerie Palace.  This also happened to be where the ceremony was being held.  Quickly, she ran down the long, winding stairwell that led to the Hall of Wonders, the site of the event.  When she arrived in the magnificent crystal-walled room she found it had already started.  She checked that her bun was still in place and ran to the back of the line of other female Faeries waiting to get their groups.  She saw her mother, the Queen, and her father, the King, and the other Royals at the front of the Hall.  She sighed with relief when she saw they had not noticed her late arrival.

Lydia now began to take in her surrounding a little better.  She had never seen the Hall quite like this before.  The Hall was made completely of glistening crystal and shined brightly at every nook.  She now realized she was standing on a plush purple carpet that went from the doorway to the thrones at the front.  Usually the Hall was decorated head to foot with tinsel and golden statues of important Faeries of the past, but today it was quite bare.  This really didn't surprise Lydia, after all, this was a sacred rite.  It seemed almost appropriate the Hall be bare.  Lydia also noticed another difference—there was no one else there besides the Royals and her fellow Faeries in line.  This made Lydia very happy, as she had always hated the large crowds that normally filled there.

Suddenly, she realized she was now near the front of the line.  She nervously straightened her dress.  She then stood on tiptoe to get a better view of what was going on at the very front.  This was quite easy for Lydia, considering she was rather tall for a Faerie.  First she noticed a large ball of light emanating around the Faerie now at the front.  A male Faerie was asking her something.  Upon second glance, she discovered it was Newton Frog, an extremely proper male Faerie who was not a Royal, but still held a very high position in society.  He seemed to always carry out ceremonies such as this.  Lydia rather liked Newton as well.  Most male Faeries were rather surly and had green, mossy teeth.  They also usually wore horrible, dirty moss shirts (which matched their teeth perfectly) ripped at the sleeves and went down to their knees.  Newton Frog, on the other hand, was always impeccably dressed in a long violet tuxedo jacket and a matching top hat and vest.

It was now Lydia's turn.  Newton smiled at her sweetly.  Lydia smiled back feebly.

"I suppose we saved the best for last," he said, his voice booming throughout the Hall.

Lydia's mother beamed out at her.

"First off, Lydia, some questions," Newton continued.

Lydia nodded in understanding.

"Have you passed your Faerie Quests?"

"Yes," Lydia replied.  She remembered them well.  They were an extremely hard series of tests that assess your magical prowess, your knowledge, and your bravery.  She had passed them about a year ago and had still not quite recovered from that grueling Quest.

"Are you of a sound mind?"

"Yes."

"And lastly, will you give everything to your group?"

"Yes," Lydia returned immediately.

Newton smiled again.  "Well then," and a huge ball of light engulfed her, just as it had the other girls.

An image came before her.  It was of seven humans who looked to be in their teens.  They were standing in a clearing.  There was an eight figure, which was shrouded in fog.  Lydia gasped and fainted to the floor.

Brystol pushed through the branches that hung in her way as she tried to keep up with Johnny.  She was lost in thought about everything that had happened.  She looked up from the ground that she had been staring at to see that Johnny had gotten quite a lead on her.  "Johnny, wait!" she called out to him, and quickened her pace to a brisk jog to try to catch up to him before tripping over a tree root.  "Ah!" she let out a short scream of frustration and one of her little light balls appeared and started hovering around her head.  She swatted at it angrily, not noticing that Johnny had been walking back to help her until he was standing right in front of her.  She reached for his outstretched hand, but fell short when she hit her head off of a low branch.  Johnny laughed and Brystol blushed.  Brystol attempted again to reach for Johnny's hand.  She reached out to grab it, and as she looked into his eyes, her own eyes sparkled and she smiled at him.  Johnny pulled her up and returned the smile, but had no idea what it meant.  The little light above her disappeared and she walked with him to the clearing, trying not to stare at him.

When they arrived, everyone else was already there, but they didn't seem like their usual chatty and happy selves.  They all sat there silently, even Truman, the cheerful and optimistic one, stared downward.  But, the arrival of the last two made Allora brighten, and she very quickly hopped to her feet.  "Okay, you guys," she announced.  "We have to learn how to control our powers.  We can't allow them to run wild."

Truman got up and brushed the back of his khaki pants off.  "Agreed," he stated.  "But how will we learn to control them?"

Allora nodded to Brystol.  "Brys, I need you for this one.  We have to experiment with the power that is least threatening."

Brystol shot Allora a look, but obeyed and came over to her.  "Oh, great, thanks.  Thanks a whole lot," she muttered.

Allora looked to Morrigan who was lying on a tree limb.  Morrigan nodded, acknowledging the fact the Allora was allowing her to take over and then turned her head toward Brystol.  "Brystol, try to channel your light energy.  I know you can feel that it's there, so try to channel it.  Control it.  Bring it forth."  

Brystol closed her eyes and tried her hardest.  A tiny spark of light about the size of a Christmas tree bulb appeared in front of her and stayed for about five seconds then went out.  Allora and Morrigan slumped, but brightened again as to encourage their friends.  "Uh that's a start, Brys," Morrigan said unconvincingly.  She the then looked to Truman and gave him a big smile.  "Your turn, Tru," she declared. 

"Truman!" he corrected, then walked to the center of the clearing.

"Go on!" Allora urged with the best smile she could pull off.

Truman tried to concentrate on his water energy.  "This is making me have to pee," he complained. 

Morrigan threw a berry from the tree she was sitting in at Truman's head.  "Not THAT type of water energy, idiot.  You know perfectly well what I mean.  Now try to bring forth water."

Truman tried harder.  All of the sudden, his mouth filled with water.  He spat it out quickly.  "Blah," he choked.  Everyone laughed, and Morrigan nearly fell out of the tree.  Truman's little escapade really seemed to brighten the mood.

But then, all of the sudden, a plume of black and red fire shot up from the ground and the air filled with smoke.  "Johnny," Allora asked.  "Did you do that?"

"N-n-no," Johnny stuttered, in a voice he tried to render as brave and macho, though unsuccessfully.  

When the smoke cleared, there stood a band of six demons.  All were about four feet in height and varied in appearance and color.  They almost didn't seem all that menacing, but they seemed angry.

"Ewww!  They're so ugly!" cried Brystol.

Morrigan shook her head in disgust.  "This is not good, guys...these demons seem mad.  Even though their appearance leads me to believe they are of a lower class of Messenger Demons, with our inability to channel our powers..."

Truman scratched his head.  "Is that good or bad?"

Brystol ran over and hit Truman in the arm.  "They're demons!  Of course they're bad!"

Truman was about to comment when a seventh demon appeared.  She was nearly seven feet tall and had a wild angry face with horns set atop her head.  She had long, wiry red hair and scaly green skin.  She was truly a sight to be seen.  

Morrigan tilted her head thoughtfully.  "That could be a high ranked demon."

The demon laughed.  "Ah, someone with knowledge of our kind.  You are very right young lady; I am a high-ranked demon, I'm a Superior, In fact.  My name is Idonea."

Allora stepped forward with an angry smirk on her face.  "What do you want with us?"

The demon also stepped forward as if to meet Allora's challenge.  "I want you dead," she stated firmly.  "You could become a problem to the demon race if I let you live.  You have gained powers, if they are from the Goddess, I do not know.  But you could very well become the 'Chosen Ones'.  And I can't have that happening.  Like I said, you must die."

Brystol began to cry.  "That is so mean!"

Idonea stared wide-eyed at her.  "That's kind of what I was going for."

Now Brystol began crying hysterically.

Idonea shook her head at the odd girl and turned to her demonic army and pointed to three of them.  "Okay, you're coming with me to take care of another group of powerful humans."  Then she looked to the other six.  "The rest of you, take care of these annoyances."

With that, Idonea and half her entourage disappeared.  The rest of the demons huddled for a quick moment then let out vicious, cackling laughs.

"What's so funny?" asked Johnny confused.

"The way you're going to die!" they all yelled in unison.

Brystol ran up to Allora and poked her rib.  "You're the smart one, do something!"

Allora's eyes widened.  "Wha... what do you mean?  There's nothing to do..."

Brystol began to jump up and down with frustration.  "Just leave us alone.  We're just kids!  I... just got my driver's license last week.  Go away.  We're no threat to you!"

"Foolish girl.  Children you are, but warriors you may become," said a demon from behind the initial three.

The three demons turned to the demon behind them.  "Demisses..." they whispered.

Demisses snarled and he ran his fingers through his wire-like hair.  "If you three don't pick up the pace soon, I will.  And I can guarantee that the blood of those children won't be the only blood to stain my clothes."

With that, Demisses disappeared and the three demons snickered.  "He couldn't even take care of these guys," one demon cackled.  They seemed to regain control of themselves, and attacked the five head on.

"I think Demisses was a Superior demon, too," said Morrigan as she and the others ran through the forest as they all tried to escape their demonic adversaries.  

"Nobody cares!"  Brystol cried as she pushed through overgrown weeds.  "Ugh!  There's too much shrubbery!"

Johnny and Truman ran back a few steps to aid Brystol.  "Brystol, you gotta keep up!" commanded Johnny.

Truman nodded.  "It seems that our knowledge of these woods has come to an advantage, but they will find us eventually so we have to get out into the public as soon as possible."

"Why out in public?" asked Brystol as she and Truman and Johnny raced to catch up with Allora and Morrigan who were hiding behind a large oak impatiently.

"Because," explained Morrigan.  "They want to keep themselves as low key as possible.  A public appearance is out of the question."

Allora stomped her foot.  "No!  You heard that other demon.  He wants us dead.  And an order like that is usually one to be followed. Especially when the assassins' lives are on the line as well.  Or atleast that's the feeling I got, even though that Demisses didn't seem to be too respected.  We should fight here.  There's no chance of anyone else getting hurt."

Morrigan nodded.  "Agreed.  We fight here."

Johnny and Truman also nodded and whispered their own forms of the word "yes".

Brystol shook her head violently.  "I don't think so!  Me?  Fight?  Not in this lifetime.  You are crazy.  We won't win.  We can't.  We are pathetic little humans and they are big, well they're actually rather small, but still scary, nasty, DEMONS!  Excuse me for calling you the smart one, Allora."

"You want to make it on your own?" questioned Allora.

"N-no..."

"Then you fight with the rest of us."

Brystol nodded sheepishly then screamed.  "Looky!  There they are!"

Everyone turned to see the approaching demons.  Only two were present, but that meant that the other could be hiding elsewhere.

Morrigan put her hand on the ground.  "Please let this work..." she begged.  She closed her eyes and concentrated on her power.  Suddenly, a boulder landed right on top of one of the demons.  It shrieked in surprise, unfortunately not pain.  The boulder didn't even seem to stun it.  Morrigan shook her head in disappointment.

Johnny stepped forward with an outstretched arm, trying to command fire.  He did bring forth fire, but it came from the wrong hand and set his shoes on fire.  He was about to yell an obscenity, but before he could, everyone had been transported to Morrigan's bedroom and no one had any idea how.

          Everyone was astounded.

          "How did we get here?" asked Truman, completely in awe.

          "I dunno," replied Johnny as he looked down at his foot to find it was still on fire.  "Ah!  My foot is still on fire!"

          Morrigan grabbed a vase of flowers from her desk and dumped all the water out on his foot.  "There."

          Truman scratched his head.  "I could've done that you know..."

          "Yes I know you could," Morrigan said with a sneer.  "But, I don't want my silk bedspread ruined either."

          Truman frowned and sat down in one of Morrigan's chairs.  He looked to Allora and Brystol who were unusually quiet.  They both had blank expressions on their faces.  Well, it wasn't that unusual for Allora to be lost in thought, but Brystol almost always had something to say, even if it was of no relevance.  "You guys okay?" asked Truman, with a noticeable amount of worry in his voice.

          Allora sighed and gave Truman a warm smile.  "Yeah, I'm just a little freaked.  This just isn't sinking in very well.  You know... after all we've been taught..."

          Truman nodded as well as Morrigan and Johnny who also had shared the same view as their friend.  Brystol however had still remained silent.

          "Brystol?  Earth to Brystol?  Helloooo?" said Johnny as he went over to Brystol's side.

          She finally shook her head and faked a smile.  "Yes, Johnny?"

          "What's wrong, Brys?" he asked.

          Brystol sniffed and automatically everyone knew Brystol's silence was due to the fact that she was trying not to cry again.  "Everything..." she sobbed.  "We're going to die, you know.  Everyone dies.  It's inevitable.  But I'm not ready yet.  I don't want to die."  Brystol sank to the floor and covered her face with her hands.  "I'm not ready yet!" she repeated through her tears.

          Allora knelt beside Brystol and put an arm around her.  "None of us want to die.  That's why we have to fight.  We have to fight them, the Demons.  But not just for us, for everyone on this planet.  We were given extraordinary powers.  We have to learn how to control them and use them to our advantage.  These powers just may be the very things that save us," Allora bit her lip. "Those Demons said something about a Goddess.  Maybe she gave us our powers."

          Morrigan chuckled.

          "What?" Allora asked, not really thinking this was a laughing matter.

          "The Goddess is like numero uno in Wiccan religion.  You are being a tad pretentious to think She gave you these powers."

"Sorry I don't know who the Goddess is.  But no one really thought about what could happen when we held that séance anyway.  But something did happen.  And we can't change that.  So we have to do this.  Together.  Not alone.  Together."  Allora looked to each of her friends and each of them showed some sign of understanding and agreement.  She then looked back to Brystol who was beginning to end her crying.  "Are you with us?"

Brystol nodded slowly and smiled at Allora.  "Thanks, Al.  But... I'm still scared... what if..."

Johnny crouched to the floor beside Allora and Brystol and gently ran his fingers along Brystol's cheek.  "Don't cry, Brys.  I'll protect you.  I promise."

Brystol's smile widened and she hugged Johnny.  "Thanks."

Allora stood up with a grin. "Enough mushy stuff you two.  We need a plan of action, and an explanation of all this including how we even got to Morrigan's room like that."

Morrigan nodded as Brystol and Johnny rose from the floor, both blushing.  "Yeah, but first we need a meeting place.  And a time."

"Okay.  Good thinking.  We have a game tomorrow so... umm we'll figure that out at Damon's after the game.  Okay?"

Morrigan shook her head in agreement.  "Okay.  But, Allora, I want you to stay the night at my house.  We need to do some serious research about all that's happened. "

"Okay," she agreed without hesitation.  "I was thinking the same thing.  We need to find out how we got these powers and why.  I'd also like to look up some things on demons.  And uh, how we got from the woods to your house."

"Okay, Allora, you keep those things in mind.  As for the rest of you... you should really leave... my mom'll be pissed if she finds all of you up here."

Everyone except for Allora quickly slipped down Morrigan's steps and out the door.  On the way out, Brystol turned to Johnny.  "Do you mean what you said?"

Johnny, not exactly remembering what she was talking about, replied with a "yeah" and walked to his house with Brystol and Truman not far behind.


	7. Perverts, Bunnie, and a Hockey game

It was ten-thirty p.m., and Allora and Morrigan sat upstairs in Morrigan's room, talking and watching a movie of which neither was very interested in.  Allora absently brushed her hair as she spoke about her odd obsession of macaws and Morrigan was painting her nails black and purple.  Of course, there was no way for Drake and Trey to discern what they were talking about through the window, and Trey was obviously horrible at reading lips.

"Apparently, Allora's Aunt Mildred's Chinese camel came to the country club and laid eggs on the cucumbers," Trey said thoughtfully.

"You idiot!" Drake whispered harshly and hit Trey on the back of the head.  "Whoa!" he yelled suddenly as he began to loose his balance and nearly toppled off his ladder.

Trey snickered.                                                                      

Drake glared at him.  "I thought you said you could read lips," he yelled exasperatedly.

Trey shrugged.  "I thought I could."

"I ought to tip your ladder over."

"They'd hear us then."

Drake angrily reached over and began to rattle Trey's ladder.  "Hey!" yelled Trey, and he began to rattle Drake's ladder.  Soon enough there was yelling and rattling and banging, along with numerous flying insults and obscenities.  

Inside, Morrigan heard the din outside.  She became peeved because it was making her hand unsteady, and she didn't want to mess up her nails.  She got up off her bed and inched her way over to the window quietly and stealthily so she would not frighten away the visitors.  Suddenly, she pushed open the window.  Morrigan stared at Trey and Drake, not realizing who they were.  "Ah!  Molesters!  Get the hell out of here!" she screamed as she pushed the ladders, trying to rid herself of the peeping toms.  

Trey and Drake desperately tried to hold onto her windowsill.  "Morrigan," yelled Trey.  "It's just us!"

"Yeah!" added Drake.

Allora threw her brush on the floor and ran to Morrigan's aid.  "Are we being attacked?"

Morrigan, extremely breathless, shook her head.  "No.  It's... just Drake and Trey."

"Oh.  It's you."  Allora frowned at Drake.  "And you," Allora said, slightly happier to see Trey.  She cocked her head.  "What are you doing here?"

"Yeah," agreed Morrigan.  "What the hell do you want?"

Drake and Trey eyed each other with icy glares.  Each one was accusing the other.

"Uh..." Trey began sheepishly as his face turned bright red.

Allora folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.  "It's okay.  I think I know why you're here."  

Morrigan stared at Allora in utter disbelief.  Although she didn't agree with Brystol most of the time, Morrigan and Brystol both knew Allora knew nothing about teenage romance and the desperate measures boys go through.  _Allora can't possibly know.  Morrigan then realizing that the feat was impossible, smiled to herself.  __This ought to be good._

Trey and Drake gulped both thinking that Allora and Morrigan knew why they were spying.  But, they were in for a surprise.

"You want to know what time the scrimmage starts tomorrow, right?" asked Allora.  "It only makes sense.  You didn't know anyone's number and you though Morrigan lived here.  You knew Morrigan was on the team and also knew that you could ask her, and you didn't want to ring the doorbell and ask.  That would be way too embarrassing.  So it lead you to spying.  Right?"

Morrigan rolled her eyes and was about to say something but before she could, Drake replied with a "yes" and gave a killer grin, naturally making her speechless.  

Trey looked down at the ground tried to avoid any eye contact.  "Sorry for disturbing you... we'll go now... uh what time IS the hockey scrimmage?"

Allora smiled brightly.  "Two.  See you guys later."

Trey smiled shyly and proceeded down his ladder, while Allora walked back over to Morrigan's bed to sit and read a magazine.  But, before Drake could leave, Morrigan grabbed him by his coat collar.  "Next time you want to spy, make sure Allora isn't here and Trey doesn't come along."

Drake winked and carefully climbed down his ladder.

Morrigan sighed.  She was in love.  For real.  No more "push-overs".  A real man.  

Drake and Trey walked home, very relieved.

"Hey, do you think those guys have powers?" Trey asked.

"I would assume."

"Maybe we should tell them.  I mean Allora seems nice enough.  I think the rest will actually be glad there's two more people to help."

"I guess you're right.  We'll tell them tomorrow at the scrimmage."

Trey smiled.  He really wanted to tell them.  He felt it would give him a chance to get to know Allora more.  He was suddenly very excited about the scrimmage tomorrow.

Brystol sat quietly on her living room couch.  Everything really hadn't sunken in well for her.  All she ever wanted out of life was to be accepted as a normal teenage girl.  And so far, that wasn't happening.  She was given a strange power, chased by demons through the woods, then mysteriously transported to Morrigan's bedroom.  _How normal is that?_

She grabbed the throw blanket from the back of the couch and wrapped it tightly around her.  She felt so alone.  True, she had always been friends with Johnny, Allora, Morrigan, and Truman since she was little, but she had always felt like the outcast.  Though Brystol liked to consider Allora and Johnny good friends, she couldn't say the same about Truman and Morrigan.  Allora and Johnny, of course, were the best of friends with both Truman and Morrigan.  It seemed that she couldn't do anything with Allora and Johnny without Truman and Morrigan tagging along.  She couldn't risk being associated with _them_.  So that basically that left no room for her.  They did include her in on their activities, though.  But that didn't really make for a great friendship.  Brystol never felt completely comfortable with them all.  The fact that Truman and Morrigan had the same feelings about her as she did for them didn't help.  But did she blame them?  

Brystol thought back to the time she went to Kennywood, a local amusement park with them for their school picnic.  It was only last year and she remembered it perfectly.  She was sitting with them in the restaurant there when Bunnie Ramone and the cheerleading squad walked in.  Upon seeing her, they stalked over to the table where the five were sitting.  Johnny and Allora were given fairly vacant "hello's" and then they turned to her.

"What are you doing here with _them_?" asked Bunnie, nodding towards her "friends".

"We decided to come together," Brystol replied meekly.  "We always come together."

Bunnie flipped her bleach blonde hair.  "Oh really?  Well, if I'm not mistaken, you're a cheerleader now, aren't you?"

Brystol gulped.  "Well, yeah, but I have been since Middle School."

"Middle School?" Bunnie laughed.  "That was not cheerleading, that was…that was…" Bunnie searched for the word.  "—rhythmic frolicking.  But you are a cheerleader now, and you should learn to act like one." 

Brystol remained still and silent, not quite knowing what to do.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Bunnie angrily implied.  "Let's go.  I can't allow one of my favorite cheerleaders to be seen with a crowd of such low social status."  She turned to Allora and Johnny who were fuming in their seats.  "No offense to you two, of course."  She pointed a pink fingernail towards Morrigan.  "But that is a different story," she said, refusing to even acknowledge Truman's existence. 

And Brystol got up and left without even saying a goodbye.  She was with her cheerleaders, now.   Yes, she had her cheerleader friends, but were they really friends?  Or were they tools to boost her popularity and vice versa?  It didn't matter, though.  That was where she belonged.  She was popular, cute, and a cheerleader.  She was what every girl from five to ninety wished they were, would be, or had been.  And she wouldn't allow some stupid powers get in her way of that.  She sat up and looked over at the phone.

Feeling very bad, she decided to call Allora.  Maybe they could do something.  Just then the phone rang.  Brystol smiled.  _Maybe it's Allora_, she thought to herself.  She picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hi Brys," Bunnie Ramone's all to recognizable squeak replied.  "All the cheerleaders are going out to eat.  I'd really love it if you could join us."

"Of course Bunnie," Brystol responded happily, though inside she was anything but.  "I'll see you in a little."

She hung up and fell once again on the couch in frustration.

The Jefferson Memorial Ice Demons suited up in the guy's locker room in with the exceptions of Allora and Morrigan, the only female players on the team.  Unfortunately for them, they had to dress in the girls' bathroom,  which was often a very crowded place around game time.  This was because there was not a girl's locker room at the Ice Palace, a hockey rink behind the school, which was where JM played all their home games.  So, the two had to push through girls by the hundreds, who were carefully applying their make-up, hoping to snag one of the dreamy male hockey players after the scrimmage.  

"You think we'll beat the Tree Frogs?" asked Morrigan over the commotion as she put her pads on.

Allora, already in full hockey attire, shrugged.  "Their team is composed of mainly seniors and a few juniors, but they aren't very good.  So, I'm pretty sure we're gonna win."  

Morrigan smiled, looking a little dazed.  "It's kind of funny actually..."

"That we're sophomores and they're seniors?"

Morrigan shook her head while putting her skates on, which was a difficult task.  "No.  Our name, the Ice Demons.  It's kind of ironic with all that has been going on the last couple of days."

"I suppose it is," she answered as she turned to Morrigan.  "Let head back to the guys' locker room.  The boys are probably done dressing now.  We should be able to go in now."

"Or if we're lucky, they're not done dressing," Morrigan said slyly.

Suddenly Allora was thirsty.  "Uh…  Let's give them a little more time.  I need a drink anyway."

"Allora, I'm kidding.  They always finish in ten minutes so we can come in."

"Oh, I knew you were kidding," Allora replied awkwardly.

In the locker room, everyone was getting pumped, including the girls who had just arrived.  "Are we ready?" asked Coach Ryder with much enthusiasm.  

The team screamed with excitement.  Scrimmages were taken as seriously as most games and the Ice Demons were favored to win.  The hockey season hadn't even started yet, but hockey was the favorite sport of the area and dominated greatly over football as the most popular high school sport.  It also didn't help that all the best athletes were on the hockey team and left the JM football team completely without any talent.  In fact, the football team consisted of mainly sophomores and freshmen that didn't make the hockey team.   

It became very prevalent to visiting hockey squads just how devoted the area was to the Ice Demons.  In front of the school stood a twenty feet tall blue demon holding a hockey stick and sporting a malevolent glare.       

The side of the school that faced the road was completely covered with signs saying "Feel the Wrath of the Ice Demons", and others used for intimidation.  If teams weren't scared yet, they would be when they reached the arena, which was a down a long dirt road behind the school, where they would meet a horde of JM supporters yelling rude remarks, some wearing demon masks.  All of this gave JM a bit of a reputation, which only added to their mythical status.  And hockey wasn't the only sport at JM, of course.  

Allora and Johnny had been trying for some time, but to no avail, to convince Principal Eggert to start a martial arts team.  They were only casually taking it, but had won a few tournaments, though only one national each.  Principal Eggert insisted there weren't enough people to make a team.  As of late, Allora and Johnny hadn't been recruiting any one.  They decided they should concentrate on other things, more important things.  Allora had also given up taekwondo classes.

Drake looked at Trey meaningfully.  "It's now or never."

Allora and Morrigan had sat next to them in the locker room.  Trey tapped Allora's shoulder.

"What is it, Trey?" she asked, a bit irritated he would bother her during the pep talk.

"Allora, how should I say this?  Um…  Drake and I have powers," he said, blushing.  That wasn't quite how he wanted to say it.

Allora's eyes bugged out of her head.  "Speak to me after the game."


	8. What do we need this for?

The scrimmage was rather uneventful.  JM won, but Allora wasn't of any help.  Her mind wasn't in it.  Trey had a goal, as well as Drake, and the team seemed to really take to the two rookies.  Unlike last year, very few freshmen made the team.  So really Trey and Drake were the most inexperienced there.  Allora was anxiously waiting the game to end so she and Trey could speak.  When the final buzzer rang, Allora didn't bother congratulating the other team on their loss as she normally would have.  She skated quickly, instead, off the ice and into the bathroom.  She dressed quickly, and told Morrigan she'd call her later.  She met Trey outside the rink.  Both exchanged awkward smiles and began walking.  It was a full moon out and the sky was dotted with millions of tiny stars, which illuminated the walkway nicely.  For a few minutes neither spoke.  Both were unsure how to start up the conversation.  

Trey finally mustered up enough courage.  "I hope you're not mad," he said finally.

"I'm not mad," Allora replied, surprised Trey would think she would get mad over this.

"I mean, we kind of ruined it didn't we?  It was supposed to be your guys' thing.  I'm sorry we followed you."

Allora seemed confused.  "Trey, we didn't mean to get powers.  That's not why we did the séance."

Trey stopped suddenly.  "Then why?"

Allora decided Trey could be trusted.  I mean he did have powers, unless he was lying.  That thought crossed Allora's mind suddenly.  "I'll tell you Trey, but I would like to see this power of yours first."

Trey seemed a little hurt.  "Alright," he said moving off the path.

He turned to Allora and tried to conjure up some wind.  A breeze passed by, but Trey doubted it was from himself.  He frowned.  "I can't do it."

Allora smiled.  "I thought so.  Why would you make something up like that?  What a weirdo."

Trey seemed saddened, but also angry with himself.  Suddenly a small tornado once again appeared at his side.  He smiled.  "There we go."

Allora smiled proudly.  "I knew that would work.  Anyway, Truman told us about how they demons blocking some mounds in Ireland.  We thought knowing that information might put us in danger, so, Morrigan decided to do that protection spell.  She turns to Wicca in times of need.  Of course, nothing has ever really happened before.  But this time... it did.  And let me be the first one to tell you, we didn't mean for the spell to end up like this.  Well, at least that's the abridge version."

Trey took a second to take it all in.  "This is pretty deep."

Allora nodded.  "You didn't see the demons we had to fight."

Trey looked surprised.  "Demons?  You fought demons?"

Allora told him all about the demons they had faced.  Trey became very distant it, seemed.

"Um, if it's okay, can we continue this conversation tomorrow?  I'm kind of tired and I really have to let this all sink in, you know?" he questioned shyly.

Allora shook her head.  "Of course.  In fact, just come over Morrigan's tomorrow.  Bring Drake, too.  I think you know where it is…"

Trey blushed.  "Okay, I'll see you then."

Both went their separate ways.  Allora felt bad for Trey, and in a less significant way Drake.  They had been thrust in this at amazing speed.  At least she and her friends had a little time for it to sink in.  He heard it all in about a minute.  Allora had to get home to tell Morrigan, but something popped into her head at that moment.  "Trey," she called.

Trey turned around.  "What?"

"Why did you join in?  I mean, why did you start chanting with us?"

Trey smiled.  "Drake's a Wiccan."

"Oh," Allora said.  "I'll see you later, then."

They walked further apart, both unsure exactly how to feel about the conversation they had just had.

"WHAT!" Morrigan screamed.

Allora chose not answer.

"You aren't serious?" she continued.

"I am."

They both sat on their separate beds, speaking to each other on the phone.  Allora wasn't at all surprised by Morrigan's reaction.

"Are you happy or sad?" Morrigan asked.

"Neither.  Right now I just kind of am accepting it," Allora replied matter-of-factly.

"I'm happy," Morrigan said.  "I mean, for one thing, we have more help with these demons, and for another, Drake and I can get to know each other better."

"I suppose we could use the help with the demons," Allora answered, trying to get off the Drake subject.  "They're coming to your house tomorrow to discuss a few things."

"Alright," Morrigan glanced at the clock by her bed.  "I have a French translation to do and it's getting late.  I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye," Allora said.  She hung up to phone and bit her lip in thought.

She wasn't sure if she should call any one or not.  She decided against it.  She doubted they would be as happy as Morrigan was.

The next day everyone met at Morrigan's.  The first five were there, but still two remained.  Of course, only Morrigan and Allora knew Trey and Drake were coming.  It would be a surprise to the others.

"Shall we get started?" Truman asked.

"We're still waiting on two more," Allora declared hesitantly.

Johnny, not surprisingly, seemed confused.  He counted everyone and then registered it in his head.  "Hey, we're all here."

"Nope," Morrigan said.  "It seems there were two more that chanted with us.  They received powers as well."

Everyone gasped.  "Who are they?" Brystol asked.

"Those two new kids, Drake and Trey," Allora answered.

 "You know, the new guys on the hockey team," Morrigan explained.

Truman nodded.  "Oh, now I remember them.  But how?"

"They followed us," Morrigan and Allora replied simultaneously.

"How creepy," Brystol remarked.

"I think they're both kind of creepy," Johnny shuddered.

Just then Morrigan's mom called up to them.  "Guys, you have some visitors."

Morrigan and Allora got up and went to greet Trey and Drake.  Everyone else came down as well.

"We decided to go out to eat.  We're hungry," Brystol said, grabbing her coat and putting her sunglasses on.

Everyone began walking out.  It was convenient that Morrigan's house was near the restaurant district of town.  They walked toward it, not speaking about much.  Trey and Drake seemed very out of place, walking behind the others.  After only a few minutes they reached their favorite restaurant, a place called Sammy's.  They walked in and grabbed a booth in the corner.  No one quite knew how to strike up the conversation.

"So what are your powers?" Brystol asked suddenly.

"Wind," Trey said.  "Drake has shadow."

"What's shadow?" Johnny asked.

Drake seemed embarrassed.  "I kind of just make things dark and cold, I guess."

"Jeez, maybe I don't have the stupidest power," Brystol remarked sarcastically.

Allora and Morrigan glared at her.

Drake was a mixture of mad and humiliated.  "What are yours?"

"Light," Brystol replied, with some bitterness in her voice.

"Fire," Johnny exclaimed with pride.

"Earth," Morrigan declared, beaming.

"Lightning," Allora stated, expressionless.

"Water," Truman blurted out loudly with excitement.

Everyone in the restaurant looked at him strangely.  "Yeah, can I get some water?" he asked, slouching under the table.

Everyone seemed a little more comfortable after all that was take care of.  But their comfort would be short lived for a cloud of black smoke was seen outside the window.  Brystol, Allora, Morrigan, Johnny, and Truman exchanged tired glances.  Trey and Drake looked at the cloud with wide fearful eyes.

"Is this them again?" Trey asked.

Allora nodded.

Everyone got up and walked out.  Around them they noticed everything had stopped.  Time had been frozen.  It was really quite an eerie site.  The black cloud had disappeared.  There stood three demons, all about seven feet tall.  Johnny glared at them.  "Let's do this!" he shouted.

He shot a fire ball at them.  One of the demons merely outstretched a hand and the ball of fire was turned to ice.  It crashed to the ground.  Everyone looked at each other, scared.

"Let's NOT do this," Brystol screamed, almost to tears.

Allora and Morrigan looked at each other.  Morrigan nodded.  "Brystol's right.  Let's go.  We're not ready yet."

Brystol suddenly stopped crying.  "I am?"

"Don't get used to it," Truman said, running with the others.

Brystol looked at the demons one more time.  She shrugged.  "Hey, it's worth a try."

She got her hands together, and brought a small ball of light out.  The demons laughed.

Brystol stomped her foot.  "Damn it," she shouted, now running away with all her energy.

They ran to Allora's house, which was slightly closer than Morrigan's.  They stampeded up to her room and fell with exhaustion upon arrival.

They all regained their breath.  "What are we going to do?" Truman asked.  "We can't beat them!"

"Yet," a small voice said in an Irish accent, although it was obviously restrained.

They all stared wildly around.  Brystol was the first to see it.  "Ah!  A talking bug lady!  I hate bugs!"

"I'm not a bug," it cried, defiantly.

Then, everyone finally saw it.  They all seemed scared of it, even to some extent more than the demons  Everyone except Morrigan that is, who seemed happy.  "It's a Faerie!" she reported.

Johnny chuckled.  "Faeries aren't real."

"Yes, they are," the bug said.

"Why did you come here?" Morrigan asked.  "Are you friend or foe?"

"Why friend of course.  I'm here to help you.":

 "Help us?"  Trey asked.

The Faerie nodded and landed on Allora's nightstand.  She had shoulder length, curly auburn hair and indigo eyes.  She wore a short green dress with a lavender bow on it and matching lavender shoes.  "My name is Lydia.  I'm a Faerie, and I'll be watching over you from now on.  Its my job to make sure your powers progress correctly."

"But why?" Morrigan asked.

"The Goddess looked into your souls, and saw that you were righteous.  You were given powers to fight the demons."

"But our powers aren't good enough," Johnny said, gloomily.

"They will be."

Lydia looked at Morrigan.  "You're Morrigan, the one with earth, correct?"

Morrigan nodded.  "Yeah, and Truman has water, Allora has lightning, Johnny has fire, Drake has shadow, Brystol has light, and Trey has wind."

Lydia shook her head.  "Your powers will all become great one day.  I know it's hard to imagine, I'm sure everything seems very awkward right now, but you'll learn.  In time, all of you will earn more powers, and the ones you already have will be heightened.  Once you gain control of your powers, you'll learn attacks, which are concentrated forms of your powers.  You all have only one attack now.  An example of this would be Morrigan's Golem Hand.  But, you will get more.  And you'll get them the same way, they'll just appear in your mind at random, or should I say when the Goddess feels you are ready to move on."

Brystol seemed uninterested.  She stared at her skirt.  "Oh no!  It happened again!  I got that black sooty stuff on my skirt again!"

Lydia looked at them all.  "Yes, these outfits will not do.  You must be given battle outfits.  Yes, that'll work."  She looked at each person with intent.

She smiled at Brystol.  "You first.  What is your power again?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a power, it's more of a nuisance.  All it is a little ball of light that floats around my head."

Lydia frowned.  "Try not to be so negative.  You'll get used to it."

"Well, what if I don't want to get used to it?" Brystol shrieked as she stomped her foot on the floor.  "You can't just give someone powers and expect them to be cool with it.  Maybe that's how things are where you come from, but humans just aren't like that."  Brystol stomped her foot again and left the room.  A few seconds later they could hear Allora's front door slam shut.

"She'll be okay," Allora assured with a look of uncertainty 

_Maybe I really wasn't ready for this.  _Lydia for once was glad she was so small compared to her new human allies, for she was desperately trying to hold back tears.  "Shall we try this again?"

Morrigan clapped her hands.  "Yes, please continue."

Lydia flew over to Morrigan's shoulder and carefully inspected her ears.

"Um, what are you doing to Morrigan's ear?" asked Drake who was lounging on Allora's chair.

"Seeing if Morrigan, here, has her ears pierced, which she does, which makes things a lot easier for her.  It's also good that she doesn't have any earrings in at the moment.  Oh!  She has one of those high earring holes!"  Lydia quickly waved her hands and a silver earring with a brown gem appeared in Morrigan's cartilage hole.

"Earrings make this so much easier," she stated as she flew over to Allora's shoulder.  "Oh this is just great!" she exclaimed as she found that Allora also had a cartilage earring, which was in at the moment.  "Could you please take that out?" she asked Allora sweetly as she pointed to it.

"Sure," Allora answered as she took her earring out.  "But may I ask what this is for?  I mean, getting jewelry from a Faerie is quite odd in my book."

"You'll see," Lydia said as she put a sliver earring with a yellow gem in Allora's ear.  "Does anyone else have any earrings?"

Trey raised his hand awkwardly.  "I do."

"Good."  And Lydia proceeded to give Trey a silver earring with a gray-blue colored gem for his cartilage.

"Now for those of you without earrings, could I please have some item of jewelry?"

          Johnny pulled his golden cross out from underneath his shirt.  "This is all I have," he said sadly.

          Drake pulled a skull ring off his finger.  "And this is all I have…"

          Lydia took both items of jewelry and waved her hands above them, giving Johnny's cross a red gem in the center and giving Drakes ring a black gem in the skull's mouth.

          Truman frowned.  "I don't own any jewelry.  I'm sorry," he apologized.

          "But you do."  Allora pointed to Truman's gold watch.  "Would Truman's watch work, Lydia?"

          "Oh, yes!"  Lydia smiled nervously.  "That watch looks a bit heavy, could you place it on the bed?"

          "Oh sure," Truman replied and put it on the bed to have Lydia place a blue gem on it's band.

"Okay, now that I've finished, I can tell you what those are for," Lydia stated.

"I think I've already figured it out, Lydia," Allora replied.  "These control our battle outfits."

Lydia turned around to find Allora fully suited for battle.  She wore a black body suit with blue patches on the legs and a yellow lightning bolt down the neck.  Her boots were built into her body suit with shin pads for protection.  She also wore a long sleeved black jacket and blue and yellow gloves that had slightly padded palms.  "Yes, very good, I see you catch on well.  Now can you explain how you did that to the others?"

"Not a problem."  Allora pointed to her earring.  "What I did was channel my power into the stone in my earring, thus activating my battle outfit.  I'm just going to assume that I simply repeat the process to get back in my normal clothes."  

Lydia clapped her hands happily.  "Okay, all of you try now."

The rest of the group focused their powers into their gems to and quickly appeared in their own unique battle outfits.  Morrigan wore a moss green knee-length skirt that somewhat resembled Brystol's cheerleading skirt except it had less frills and it had slits on both sides.  She also had a brown breastplate that went to her a stomach and mid thigh brown boots with matching gloves that went almost up to her shoulders.

Johnny's outfit consisted of a red short-sleeved shirt with a red breastplate that stopped just above his stomach with shoulder armor on top of it, black, durable, army style pants, and combat boots.  Trey's outfit was slightly similar, having the same pants and shoes but with a gray shirt with a full silver breastplate and no shoulder pads.  He also had a black jacket over top and black gloves with no fingers.

The rest of the boys, which were Truman and Drake, seemed to have the same pants and shoes as Trey and Johnny, but the armor, gloves, and jackets, that they sported were also different.  Truman's shirt was blue and long-sleeved and was met at the elbows with black gloves.  His armor consisted of a breastplate that covered his entire chest as well as shoulder armor.  Drake had a long-sleeved black shirt as well matching armor that covered his entire chest, like that of Trey's.  He had black gloves that went barely an inch past his wrist and a long black trench coat-like jacket.

"You look great!" Lydia complimented.  "Well, now that that's accomplished, I suppose I should give you you're weapons.  Hold out your hands, please."

The teens held out their hands and a weapon and one or two silver rings appeared with a matching gem to their battle outfit gem appeared.  Trey received a pair of si, Johnny, a pair of mettle knuckles, Morrigan, a katana, Allora, a pair of daggers, Drake a sword, and Truman, a whip.

"The ring should go on the hand you write with," Lydia instructed, "and if you got two, one should go on each hand.  You should wear this jewelry always, it could help you greatly if another attack is sprung on you."

The teens nodded obediently.

"What about Brystol though?" asked Johnny, concerned.

Lydia handed Johnny two silver rings with orange gems in them and a pair of sliver orange gemmed earrings.  "I noticed she had a single set of earrings earlier… Uh, would you be so kind as to give her these?"

Johnny smiled, "Uh, sure, I guess."

"Okay, good, I have to go now, I'll be around when you need me!  Bye!"  Lydia waved and disappeared as the sextet stood in utter astonishment.

"Guys, what was that about?  Is she good or bad?" enquired Truman, in awe.  

"I have no idea," answered Morrigan.

Allora looked to Truman, Morrigan, and Johnny.  "That Faerie looked like the one in my dream.  How about you?"

Their eyes lit up.  "Yeah!  I thought she looked familiar!" shouted Johnny, thoroughly excited.

"Dream?" asked Trey, looking at Drake cautiously, then to the others.  "You mean you had a reoccurring dream, as well?"

"Yeah.  All summer," Truman replied almost nonchalantly.  This super natural stuff was becoming an every day thing.

"What was in it?" enquired Drake with a raised eye brow.

"Well first there was a Faerie who looked just like Lydia, then fighting in the clearing we hang out at and we were wearing our battle outfits.  Then whatever element we possess appeared, and then we saw the pyramids," Morrigan stated.

"Us, too!" Trey exclaimed.

Truman slumped down on Morrigan's bed.  "This just keeps getting weirder and weirder."


	9. Alone all by myself at last!

Morrigan walked in the darkness, cloaked in her long black cape.  It was ritual that she would walk through the cemetery each night before going to bed.  She would go to her grandmother's grave, whom she was very close to, and tell her about all her problems.  Tonight would take longer than usual, though.  She had not been there since the incident with Bernard, but tonight she felt she had to pay a visit.  Morrigan hugged her cape closer to her.  She smiled faintly.  "I love cemeteries."

"Frankly, I think they're kind of creepy," a voice said from behind her.

Morrigan turned around quickly.  She laughed.  "Oh, it's only you Drake.  Don't sneak up on a person in a cemetery.  Especially at night."

Drake walked up to her.  "What brings you here?"

"I've come to see my grandmother," Morrigan explained, pointing at a gravesite not far from where they stood.  "And you?"

Drake smirked.  "I have come to see you."  He moved closer to her, making Morrigan feel uncomfortable.  She thought back to Bernard and that night.  _Stupid.  Stupid girl._

Morrigan turned away.  "Please, Drake, don't do this."

"Do what?"

"I'm not ready yet," Morrigan continued, moving away from him.

"Why?"

"Drake, I was almost raped by my ex-boyfriend only a week or so ago.  He would have,  too, only Allora and Johnny interrupted him in the process."

Drake's eyes flared.  "Did you turn him in?"

"No," Morrigan whispered.  "We had nothing on him.  Nothing had transpired."

Drake punched at his side.  "That asshole."

Morrigan whimpered.  "Well put," she sighed, moving to sit at the bench off the pathway.

Drake sat next to her.  "I won't push it."

Morrigan put her head on his broad shoulder.  "That's all I ask."

The two sat there for some time.  They seemed to have a mutual, unspoken bond that made each other feel very comfortable in the other's presence.

Morrigan looked up at Drake.  "How long have you practiced Wicca?"

Drake thought for a second.  "Four years."

"Why'd you get into Wicca?"

"My girlfriend at the time.  What about you?"

"I don't really remember," Morrigan replied unconvincingly.  "Do you practice it often?"

"Rarely."

Morrigan got up.  "You should go."

Drake looked up at her, puzzled.  "Don't you want to talk anymore?"

Morrigan shook her head.  "It's not that.  I'm tired and I still haven't talked to my grandma."

Drake got up.  "I'll wait, then.  I'll walk you home."

Morrigan shook her head.  "It's okay.  I'm a big girl."

Drake nodded solemnly.  "Alright.  I guess I'll see you later."

Morrigan smiled faintly.  "Yeah I'll see ya."

Drake smiled back and walked away into the darkness.  Morrigan watched him walk until she could no longer see him.  She sighed.  _Why does he have to be so charming?_

Trey walked up to the spotless white porch, but turned right around before he got there.  He mustered up his courage once again.  Finally he got to the welcoming, blue front door.  He knocked.  Allora answered a few seconds later.

"Hi Trey," she greeted, giving him a warm smile.

"Hi," Trey's voice cracked.

Allora saw Trey was holding something behind his back.  "What's that?" she asked, pointing.

Trey blushed a brilliant pink.  "Flowers."

"Oh," Allora said.  "Who are they for?"

Trey looked at Allora strangely.  "You."

"Trey, you shouldn't have.  You don't have to get me flowers to thank me for your spot on the hockey team.  You earned it!"

Trey's mouth opened in shock.  _What is with this girl?  Not everything is about the hockey team! _Trey thought.  "No, that's not why I got them."

"Then why?"

_Do I have to spell it our to you?  _Trey's mind was racing.  "Um . . .never mind the reason, just here."

Trey handed a bouquet of daisies to her.  Allora beamed.  "Daisies are my favorite!  Well, it's nice that you're grateful to get on the team, but no more gifts, please."

Trey's mouth was open in shock again as Allora closed the door on him.  Trey walked away, not sure what to do next.  He had done everything he could to get her to notice that he liked her.  He stared at her, gave her flowers, even spied on her at a sleepover.  Trey came to the conclusion right then this would be very hard.

"They got away?  But how?"

"I don't know Idonea.  I wasn't there," Demisses slouched slightly as he stood, speaking to his sister Idonea.

Idonea hovered a few inches off the ground.  She was very tall and thin, but still with noticeable muscle structure.  Her hair was long, red, and wire-like.  She seemed to command respect just by her posture.  "Who was?"

"Just some low-ranked Messengers."

"Well, I guess you'll have to report this to Validus."

Demisses seemed scared.  "I'd rather not."

Idonea rolled her eyes.  "It's just one group.  You know, sometimes I don't think you deserve your position."

He glared at her.  "I'll tell him now," he said walking away.

She shook her head.  "His indecision making will be our downfall."

Allora lay, sprawled out on her bed.  Trey's flowers were in a vase next it, on her nightstand.  She looked at them out of the corner of her eye.  She felt guilty as she stared at them.  Allora got up and grabbed the phone.  At first she began to dial Morrigan's number, but then changed her mind and dialed Johnny.

Johnny picked up after two rings.  "Hello?"

"Hi Johnny."

"Hey Allora.  The scrimmage is at three tomorrow."

"That's not why I called," Allora said, quite surprised Johnny would think she would ever forget what time a hockey scrimmage would start.

"Oh.  Then why?"

"I just wanted to talk."

"About hockey, right?"

Allora was growing impatient.  "No."

"Then what?  Taekwondo?  Are you joining up again?  We really miss you at the school."

Allora thought about her karate school.  It made her sad.  "Yeah, I'm joining up again, I suppose."

"Why'd you quit?"

"Priorities."

"Oh.  Demons come first then?"

"Of course."

"Have your priorities changed then?"

"Nope."

"Then why join up again?"

"We can't beat demons with just powers you know.  A front kick to the head could help us."

"Hey!  I have an idea!" Johnny said excitedly.

"What?"

"We should all take karate!"

Allora's face beamed.  "That is a good idea."

Johnny and Allora both smiled.  In the excitement Allora had almost forgotten the real reason she called.

"Hey, there's something else I want to talk about.  It's Trey."

"What's wrong?  Can't he make it to the game?"

Allora was beginning to get why people got frustrated when she brought up hockey all the time.  "No.  I think he likes me.  You know, in that way."

"Why would you say that?  He's only drooling all over you," Johnny remarked sarcastically.

Don't worry, Al, if I know you, I'm sure he gets your drift.  I mean no one is that oblivious."

"Thanks a lot Johnny.  You're the best!  We'll tell everyone your idea tomorrow.  Bye."

"Bye," Johnny hung up.

Johnny sat back on his bed, returning to his geometry homework.  A few seconds later, the phone rang again.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Johnny it's me."

"Oh, hi Truman.  What's up?"

"It's about Morrigan.  I need your advice."

"Doesn't everybody today?"

"Huh?  Anyway, I don't think she should get involved with Drake.  I don't think it's healthy."

"Why not?  They seem like a good couple to me."

"Drake's just like Bernard.  He'll just hurt her in the end.  We should do something."

"Shouldn't we let Morrigan make her own mistakes?"

"No.  She needs us!" Truman exclaimed defiantly.

"So we should meddle in her love life then?  She needs us to do that?  Besides, nothing is official yet."

"Exactly.  Yet."

"Truman, it's late.  Just sleep on it, man.  I still have a lab report to do."

"Thanks, Johnny.  You were a big help," Truman said gratefully.  "Bye."

"Bye."

Johnny turned back to his lab report.  As he looked at the questions for which he knew nothing about, he wished he hadn't stopped talking to Truman.

Morrigan nearly ripped the pages out of the humongous _Conjuring Faeries for Beginners as she paged furiously through.  She stopped at a chapter entitled "The Easiest Way to See a Faerie".  She read quickly through; stopping at a likely looking paragraph and began to read carefully._

"Probably the best way to for the inexperienced to see a Faerie is using some type of crude lure.  Even the most skilled at the art still use some kind of lure.  For the beginner, it relies more on luck for a Faerie to appear, no matter how good the lure may be.  Lures vary depending upon the Faerie type for which you wish to see.  Water Faeries, for example, are attracted by daffodils or lilacs place on the edge of a creek bed."

Morrigan stopped reading.  Without really thinking, she grabbed a few black roses from a vase at the side of her bed.  She also pulled a few daisies out of her front yard as she headed for the woods at the back of JM High.  She stalked through the trees and barely noticed as she passed through the familiar clearing.  

She knew where there was a rather majestic looking creek bed.  It was a few minutes from the clearing and she sometimes went there to unwind.  It was also a good place to write poetry and draw.  She reached the bubbling creek and feel to her knees.  She gently placed the three black roses and the handful of daisies on the pebbles in the shallow edge.  She waited patiently.  She then said the Faerie Prayer three times.  Nothing was happening.  Morrigan looked dejected until a small blue head popped out of the water.  It smiled at her.  Morrigan leapt to her feet and moved back a few steps.  The Faerie was now fully above water.  She had legs that looked much like a frogs and she was slightly smaller than the one she had seen earlier.  

The first Faerie Morrigan had seen had made her feel very happy, though she was still scared of it.  This Faerie, though, made her very cold and sort of depressed.  She felt like she should run, but her legs weren't working.  The Faerie laughed at her, soundlessly. 

 Morrigan was now being pulled into the creek.  She expected to lay safely above water, but was surprised to find that the creek was very deep.  The Faerie was still laughing as Morrigan began to drift to the bottom.  She tried frantically to swim but her arms and legs still couldn't work.  

Above the water Morrigan could now see that the blue Faerie was not alone.  There was now a ball of yellow light that seemed to be twitting madly around the blue one.  Morrigan tried to keep her eyes open but she could not breathe.  She felt like her lungs were going to burst.  Then, she just lost consciousness.

          Johnny and Truman walked into Hockey 'n' Stuff, their favorite store, to buy some gear for the upcoming season.

"Don't you just love the preseason?" Johnny asked almost giddily.

          "It makes you so happy.  It's like there's only hope.  During the season there's a lot more pressure," Truman agreed.

          "Especially this year.  I'm certainly hoping for that state title."

          "Yes, but we'll first have to beat them," Truman said, pointing to a burly guy wearing a blue and red letterman jacket.

          Johnny cringed as the guy started to walk over toward them.  It was JM's arch rival, Granger's, star center Colin Trent.

          "Well hello Johnny and friend," he smirked at Truman.

          "You know my name perfectly well, Colin," Truman said airily.

          "I'm sorry.  Sometimes I forget unimportant people's names."

          Truman faked a laugh.

          Just then a tall, busty girl with strikingly long, wavy green hair joined Colin.  She smiled at him coquettishly.  "Are these your friends Colin?"

          "Not really," Truman answered, appalled.

          "These are some of those JM Ice Demons I told you about."

          The girl surveyed them both.  "You didn't tell me how attractive they were, though."

          Johnny blushed as Truman gave the girl a mean stare.

          "Oh I'm sorry.  I never introduced myself.  My name is Evian.  Evian Monroe.  And yes I know I'm named after a water company and I'd rather you not ask why."

          "We really don't care to know the origin of your name," Truman informed her.

          Evian smiled at him.  "You're feisty."

          Truman nearly fell over.

          "And you, Mr. Strong and Silent, what's your story?"

          "Nothing.  We really must be off," Johnny squirmed, grabbing Truman and leaving the store.

          "What was that about?" Truman asked, flattening the sleeve Johnny had ruffled.

          "That girl…you don't recognize her?"

          "No.  I think I'd recognize that slut if I saw her again."

          "She's from the Newton Connecticut Snow Leopards team.  You know, they won the National Championships like five years in a row until last year."

          Truman thought for a second.  "Actually I think I read something on an Evian.  I guess I didn't make the connection."

          "Well, she's like the best female hockey player around."

          "Better than Allora?"

          Johnny didn't seem to want to answer.  "She's much meaner."

They continued to speak about the girl as they walked home, and as they did, much of the previous hope of preseason seemed to dissolve.

Brystol, along with the rest of the squad, felt as if she were about to topple over at any minute.  Bunnie had suggested that the squad go shopping at the mall that day, but not until now had they realized her true intentions.  Every cheerleader, freshman through senior, carried a handful of bags belonging to Bunnie as they walked from store to store.  Bunnie, of course, carried absolutely nothing but her bight pink purse.  And this was really starting to make Brystol angry.  She struggled to look at her watch.  It read 3:15.  She cursed silently to herself.  She was supposed to study with Johnny and Truman at 3:30.

"Uh, Bunnie," she called, walking towards her.

Bunnie turned around, thoroughly aggravated.  "What is it, Brystol?"

"I, uh, have to go.  I'm supposed to meet some friends to study," she said shyly, trying to hide her face behind the bags she was carrying.

"What?" Bunnie exclaimed.  "You'd rather study than shop with the squad?"

Brystol blushed.  "Uh, no…  I didn't mean it like that.  It's just that I had made previous obligations, before you invited the squad out to go shopping.  And, I really do need to study."

Bunnie put her hands on her hips and rolled her blue eyes.  "Okay, Brystol, you can go."

Brystol smiled gratefully.  "Thanks, Bunnie, I-"

"Under one condition," Bunnie interrupted with a smug expression on her face.  "You get to dress as the team mascot at the next game."

She thought back to when the squad tricked her into being the mascot last year.  Not only was the suit hot, but it reeked as well and made her hair flat.  Brystol sighed, feeling extremely depressed at that moment.   She knew what she had to do.   "So, Bunnie," she said, quite aggravated herself, "Where are we going next?"

Allora hung up the phone in frustration.  She had been trying to reach Morrigan for the eleventh time during the last hour and a half and hadn't gotten an answer.  They were supposed to have gone to the bookstore together, but it was quite obvious to Allora that it wasn't happening, at least for today.  She glimpsed at the clock that hung above her dresser.  It was three twenty-seven in the afternoon and she was bored out of her mind.

She got off her bed and walked over to her cherry oak desk.  It was neat and organized.  Not a pencil was out of place.  _Boring. _Allora dug her hands into her jeans pockets and threw the contents onto her desk.  

"Hah!" she yelled during her brief lapse of sanity.  "Not boring!" 

She then proceeded to stare at the pile of loose change, jeans lint, and crumpled purple post-it note.  After about a minute of hardcore staring, Allora decided to read what was written on the note.  She opened it slowly, trying to build anticipation, but it wasn't much to anticipate.  In the end, it turned out to be Trey's phone number scribbled in messy black gel ink and a smiley face.

Allora suddenly felt very badly about the numerous times she had blown off Trey.  He was a nice guy and a great hockey player, but he wasn't her type.  

She looked up at her clock again.  It was three thirty-four.  Then she looked back at her note.  _I am bored with nothing to do._  _Why not?_

Quickly, Allora hopped over to her bedside again, where her phone was, and dialed Trey's number.

"Hello?" a familiar voice asked.

"Hi, uh, Trey," she began hesitantly.

"Allora!  It's you!"  Trey's voice nearly sang her name.

"Umm, yeah, hi.  I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out tonight or something."

Trey's response was immediate.  "Yeah!  Sure!  You can come over  to my house and have dinner with my family.  My grandparents are visiting from Nevada and I know they'd love to meet you!  And, uh, this is fairly formal, so dress nice.  But, don't take me wrong it's not like you don't dress nice already…"

Allora blinked as Trey continued to yammer.  She'd barely said a word and already he'd planned her entire evening.  "That's a good idea, Trey," she interrupted.  "I'll see you around four-thirty, okay?"

"Okay! Great!" Trey replied.  

Allora hung up the phone and fell back against her bed.  _What have I gotten myself into?_


	10. Family Matters

At the Calisto household, things weren't so laid back.  "Mom!  Dad!" Trey called.  "I've invited Allora to dinner.  Is that okay?"

Trey's dad, Mr. Calisto, smiled the same goofy grin that Trey had.  "That's nice.  I've always told you that you needed more friends other than Drake."

"Drake is a fine friend," Mrs. Calisto defended.  "But that's nice that you have made some new ones.  Now, I need your help, Trey."

Trey's mom pointed to a large bucket with various cleaning supplies.  "You know how Grandma gets after she eats, and I want the bathroom to be especially clean for her.  So here, clean it out before you put your suit on."

Trey sighed obediently and trudged off the bathroom.  "Okay, mom."

She then turned to her husband, "And you," she began as she picked up a large shovel.  "I can't have your mother thinking we're dirty, so go clean up after the dog."

"But, Ann!"

"Go."

*****

When Allora was finally satisfied with her outfit and had reached the Calisto's house, Trey's grandparents were just pulling in the driveway.  Feeling slightly bold, Allora walked over to them as they exited their Oldsmobile, to introduce herself.

"Hello, I'm Allora Colleen, Trey's friend.  He invited me to dinner with you."

Trey's grandpa smiled sweetly.  "Allora! Trey's told me so much about you!  You play hockey with him, right?  He said you are a very good player."

Trey's grandma looked over Allora skeptically.  "Democrat or Republican?"

Allora took a step back.  "Uh, Democrat."

"Trey's parents are Republican," she said sternly.  "We'll get along great."  With that, his grandma shoved her purse in Allora's hands.  "Carry, please."

Allora nodded and the three walked over to the front door.  

"Nana! Grandpop!" Trey shouted as he embraced his grandparents.  He looked up.  "Allora!  You made it."

"Of course… why…"

"Okay everyone," Mrs. Calisto informed, "dinner's on the table.  Trey, honey, show Allora where to sit, Bob, escort your parents to the table."

The Calisto family plus one Allora Colleen seated themselves at their large oak dining room table.  Food was served and soon conversation began.  "So, Allora, what do you think about President-"

"How are you at school?" Grandpop interrupted, staring at his wife intensely.

"I'm a high honors student," Allora replied shyly.

"A hockey star and an honor student, very impressive, young lady," Grandpop answered.

"This is quite some young woman, you've got here son," Trey's dad beamed.

Allora began to sweat profoundly as she looked over at a blushing Trey.  _What is he telling them?  _

"She really is quite a woman," Nana agreed.  "Come over here, honey."

Allora obediently left her chair and walked over to Trey's grandmother.  "Yes?"

"Wait, now," Nana instructed, "Let me look you over.  Twirl a bit, would you?"

Allora shrugged and twirled.  Everyone would have to agree that Allora did look extra nice this evening.  She wore a bright turquoise blouse that set off her eyes and pleated black Capris that Brystol had bought for her over the summer when she had gone Capri crazy.  

"Now how old are you?" Nana asked intently.

"Fifteen, ma'am."

"Oh, ma'am, is it?  I like that."  She looked at her husband.  "You should try that sometime."  She turned back to Allora.  "Fifteen, huh?"

"Mom," Mr. Calisto laughed, "Let the girl sit down."

"Wait!  I'm checking her out!  I haven't really gotten a good chance."  Nana looked at Allora up and down again, then turned to her family.  "Now this is one healthy girl.  Girls nowadays starve themselves, trying to be all thin and twig-like.  But not this girl.  She knows how to take of herself."

Allora couldn't believe this.  Never had she thought her evening would turn out like this.

"See girls, today," Nana continued.  "Think that by being a size one will make them more attractive and make guys like them.  But, let's face the facts.  What men really want are the goods."  Nana pointed to Allora. "And this girl's got them."

"Uhh…" Allora muttered, with a deep magenta burning through her cheeks.

"Don't be shy, be happy with what you've got, and honey, you've got it," Nana commanded with a slap to Allora's behind.

"Dear that's enough," Grandpop choked.

"Okay, okay," Nana sighed as she got up and turned to Allora.  "Now would you be so kind as to help me to the pot?"

Allora cringed.  "Sure.  I'd be more than happy to."

As the night dragged on, Allora continued to be the center of attention at Trey's house.  His grandmother, he felt, had some scheme in the making.  And she didn't reveal it until eight-thirty, about five minutes before she was leaving to stay at the Marriott in town.

"Now," she began, "I'm sure everyone knows that Trey is supposed to be in his cousin, Hannah's, wedding.  Well, Julie, his third cousin, had to drop out of the wedding party because, well she's pregnant after all.  So, we needed someone to fill in her place.  And your cousin, Hannah, thought she'd leave that up to you, Trey, to find someone."   Nana placed a loving arm around Allora.  "And I think this young lady would make a fine addition to our family – I mean party."

Trey cringed.  He knew what Allora must be thinking about him at that moment as five pairs of eyes fell upon her once again that night.  She smiled sweetly.  "I'd love to be in the wedding if that's okay with you, Trey," she replied.

Trey's eyes widened.  "Uh, yeah, sure," he managed to mumble.

"Well, now.  That's settled," Nana confirmed.  "So Grandpop and I will be off.  Bye family, we'll see you tomorrow.  Nice meeting you Allora."

Sighs of relief filled the room as Nana and Grandpop pulled out of the driveway.  Mr. and Mrs. Calisto walked into the kitchen, leaving Allora and Trey alone in the family room.  _Should I apologize or make an excuse?  Ugh!  Allora must hate me!_

"I have to go," Allora stated flatly.

"Wait!" Trey exclaimed, jumping in front of her.  "Let me explain.  You see…"

"There's a Chemistry test tomorrow and I really have to study," she declared in the same manner as before.  "I'll see you tomorrow, Trey," she said, walking out the door quickly.

"At least let me walk you home," Trey offered, sounding hurt.

Allora turned around sighed. "Okay, I suppose."

Trey grinned happily and ran over to Allora.  "Cool."

"So," she began as the two walked to Allora's house, "How do you feel about being on the hockey team?" 

Trey stopped abruptly.  "Allora, don't try to fool me.  I know you're upset about what happened tonight."

Allora shrugged.  "Maybe a little.  But don't worry-"

"I will worry, Allora," Trey interrupted.  "Look I don't know what you're thinking about me right now, and I'm not quite sure that I really want to know.  But please, believe me when I say, that I had no idea this was going to happen.  I swear it."

       "If I had known I would be ambushed by your relatives to go to your cousin Hannah's wedding tonight, I would not have come."

       "I feel horrible, I really do," Trey whined.

       "I would if I were you," Allora replied icily.  "And how did they know so much about me?"

       Trey became a deep shade of red.  "I may have mentioned you a few times."

       "You think?" Allora said sarcastically.  "You know Trey, I'm all too aware of your infatuation with me, and until now I didn't think too much of it.  But now…"

       "Allora, please.  I'm not stalking you or anything."

       "I never said that.  But, just take a clue.  I don't have feelings for you."

       By now they had reached Allora's house.  "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?" Trey asked meekly.

       "Tell anyone what?"

       "About tonight.  My Nana, all of it."

       Allora thought for a second.  "It's really no one's business, is it?"

       "And us?  Are we okay?  Still friends and everything?"

       Allora looked away.  "Honestly Trey, I don't know if we were ever friends at all."

       She walked up the stone path to her house.  Trey stared at her blankly.

*****

Morrigan woke up in her bed a few hours later.  She felt like she had been sleeping forever.  Her head pounded with pain and she felt like she had run a marathon.  She rolled over to discover Lydia, the yellow Faerie, sitting on her nightstand.  Morrigan nearly jumped out of bed.  Well, she would have if she could move.  Lydia smiled at her.

       "Why are you here?" Morrigan asked.

       "I've been nursing you since you conjured The Drowning Faerie.  You nearly died.  If I hadn't stopped her…" Lydia looked away.

       "You saved me?"

       Lydia nodded.

       "Then you aren't bad?"

       "Of course not!  Why would you think that?"

       Morrigan cleared her throat.  "What would you think if you were thrown into this at such an alarming rate?  People don't exactly meet Faeries everyday.  You have to look at this from our perspective.  And I must admit.  Some of the others have talked…"

       "I see," Lydia answered in a hurt tone.

       "But, I believe you.  And I know the others will come around."

Lydia seemed to lighten at this remark, but she was still depressed.  "I will come within the next few days to your room at this time to speak to all of you.  I trust you'll speak to them?  Tell them I am not evil?"

       "Of course."

       "Thank you.  I will leave then."  Lydia flew to the open window.

       "Wait!  Please stay.  Please.  I can't be alone right now.  Just stay until I fall asleep."

       Lydia looked out the window as if something was calling her.  She turned to Morrigan. "Of course I will stay with you," Lydia said, flying over to the nightstand.

       Morrigan smiled.  "Thanks a lot."

       Lydia flattened a washcloth Morrigan used for painting her nails.  "I think I shall take a nap as well."


	11. Pet Shop

It was the second scrimmage of the year.  JM was facing one of their biggest in-conference rivals, the Bishop-Mason Falcons.  Everyone was really nervous.  The team had to travel out to Bishop-Mason, which had fans almost as devoted as their own.  Of course the "Victory Caravan" of cheering cars followed the bus, but it gave them little comfort.

They reached the arena and proceeded out.  Morrigan and Allora, just as always, changed by themselves.  They rejoined the team on the ice.  Coach Ryder had decided to forego the typical pep talk.  He said, "If you're not ready now, you won't be after the pep talk."

Coach sometimes did that before big games.  It didn't matter anyway.  The team pumped themselves up without the speech.  Allora and Morrigan skated their warm-ups, trying to loosen up.

"Oh no!" Allora groaned as she saw number nineteen on Bishop-Mason skate over.

Morrigan giggled.  "It's your boyfriend."

"Shut up!" Allora said impatiently.

Number 19 stopped in front of both.  "Hi Allora.  Just wanted to wish you luck."

"Thanks, Guy.  You, too."

As Guy skated away, Allora mumbled, "You're going to need it."_._

Allora especially hated playing the Falcons because their center, Guy, had a crush on Allora since they played together in junior hockey.  It made things very uncomfortable.

The ref moved to the center of the rink.  Guy and Allora joined him.  The ref dropped the puck, and Allora controlled the face off, but before she could pass it away Guy checked her onto the ice and grabbed the puck away.  Though, he liked her, he didn't let that get in the way of the game.  To make matters worse, Guy broke away and scored.  After only fifteen seconds, JM was already down one.  Allora rammed her stick into the ice.  She would get her revenge quickly, though.  This time she kept control of the face off, and passed it over to Trey on her left.  Finally, the announcer's voice pierced into the team's consciousness.

"Calisto gets the puck and proceeds to move up the Falcons end.  He passes it back to the center Colleen.  Colleen moves up to the goal, she shoots, she scores!  JM ties it up, just like that."

Allora was surrounded by her teammates as they celebrated the tying goal.  The first period wore on with little activity.  Both teams seemed to cancel each other out after the early spurts.  When the buzzer blared, everyone trudged off the ice.  The second period wore on in much the same way.  The game didn't seem to live up to the hype.  That was, until the third period.  The announcer had become rather lackadaisical during the second period, but his demeanor changed greatly at the start of the third.

"Grey controls the puck, passing it quickly to Maffeo who rams through the Bishop-Mason forwards.  He taps it up to Colleen who passes it quickly to Calisto.  Calisto stops suddenly and passes it to a charging Grey.  Grey gets his stick on it and hits a bomb into the goal!  JM leads two to one!"

Everyone crowded around Drake in celebration.  For almost the remainder of the game, JM let their defense take over.  When the final buzzer rang, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Everyone shook hands begrudgingly.  The Ice Demons skated to their respective locker rooms triumphantly.

"Good game," Morrigan said, getting her pads off.

"Thanks," Allora replied.

"Tough team, aren't they?"

"Sure are."

"Yeah, I was talking to Drake and he says Trey really wants to go out with you," Morrigan said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"So?"

"Maybe you should think about it."

"I already know that he likes me.  I, however, don't like him in that way."

"You sure?"

"I think I would know."

"Oh, I see."

"You see what?"

"You're holding out for Guy."

Allora blushed.  "No.  I'm not holding out for anyone.  I didn't know not having a boyfriend was such a big deal," Allora got up and grabbed her bag and left.

Morrigan looked at the door in surprise.  "I didn't mean it like that."

*****

"I've called you here to speak about the Faerie that came to us the other day," Morrigan began.

       She looked over all her friends who were standing in the clearing in the woods, which had become a sort of official meeting place for their supernatural talks.

       "We saw a Faerie.  I think that is the extent I want to go with this conversation," Brystol said.

       "Let her speak, preppy!" Drake roared.

       Brystol gave Drake a malevolent glare, mumbling to herself.

       "There is more to it," Morrigan gritted.  "First off, after all of you left, I went to the creek near here and conjured a Faerie.  It appeared to me, but it ended up being evil.  Lydia saved me.  She took me home and comforted me.  She is good.  She is here to help."

       Johnny shook his head.  "That's all well and good, but how can we be sure that wasn't just to gain our trust so she can betray us?"

       Morrigan bit her lip.  "I can't be sure.  But seriously guys, don't you want her help?  We're not exactly experts on demons and these new powers.  I may be a Wiccan, but only casually.  Besides, this is way out of even the most hardcore Wiccan to understand.  And she did give us things that really could come in handy in a battle."

       Allora seemed deep in thought.  "Truman, you've been rather quiet.  What do you think of all this?"

       Truman looked up at her.  "I think Morrigan is right," he replied uncertainly.

       "I don't," Trey piped up.

       "Why not?" Morrigan asked.

       "I agree with Johnny.  I think it's a trick."

       No one spoke for what seemed like an eternity.  "Let's take it to a vote, then," Allora suggested.

       "Alright, those in favor of giving Lydia a chance, raise their hand."

       Drake, Truman, Allora, and Morrigan all raised their hands immediately.  Brystol raised hers reluctantly.

       "Alright then, it's five to two.  I win."

       Johnny kicked the ground in anger.  Trey, however, seemed very worried.

       "Okay.  I'll see you all tomorrow at school," Morrigan said.

       They all went their separate ways except Trey.  He sat on a tree stump for some time, thinking.  He finally got up and left, still uncertain about this Lydia.

*****

       "They don't believe me," Lydia explained, thinking back to when she saved Morrigan.

       She was standing in a large room, clouds all around her.  Her mother, the Queen, sat before her in a large, cushy, purple throne.

       She smiled at Lydia.  "Get one of them to believe your intentions are good, and the rest will follow."

       "I don't know if I can do that," Lydia sighed.

       "Who is the most likely to trust you?"

       Lydia thought for a second.  "Well, there is the one.  She has tried to conjure a Faerie before.  She may be the most learned in our ways.  I may be able to speak frankly with her."

       "Than the problem is solved," the Queen declared jovially.

       "Well, I don't know how to go about it."

       "Maybe you should talk to your sister Isabelle.  She says her group has taken to her quite nicely."

       Lydia rolled her eyes.  "I'll take care of it myself," she said, flying away.

*****

Allora picked up the phone in excitement.  She dialed Morrigan's number.

"Hello?" Morrigan answered.

"Hey,"

"Oh, I thought you were mad at me."

"Oh, that.  I'm over it."

"That's cool,"

"Anyway, my mom finally gave in.  She said yes!" Allora beamed excitedly.

"Said yes to what?"

"About the macaw!"

"Oh," Morrigan sighed.  She was happy for Allora, but birds sort of creeped her out.

"You know how long I've been wanting one?" Allora sound giddy, very un-Allora like.

"Who knows?  But why did she finally give in?"

"I'm going back to karate.  Plus I've gotten 4.0 GPA's for like forever.  I guess she figured I deserved it."

"Well that's good."

"Yep.  So, you want to go to the pet shop with me?"

Morrigan frowned.  "I guess."

"Okay.  I'll be over in a few."

Morrigan hung up the phone.  "I guess you have to go Drake."

Drake looked away from the television.  "Why?"

"I have to do something with Allora."

Drake rolled his eyes.  "Don't you always?"

Morrigan gave Drake an exasperated look.  "She is my best friend.  Now leave."

"Alright already," Drake said, getting up and leaving.

A few minutes later Allora arrived, smiling.

"Let's get this over with," Morrigan growled, grabbing her coat.

They walked to the pet store, which wasn't very far.  Allora seemed to almost skip.

"How much do these things cost anyway?" Morrigan asked.

"My mom gave me four-thousand dollars.  For the bird, the cage, food, and stuff like that."

Morrigan stopped.  "You're spending four-thousand dollars on some creepy bird?"

"They're not creepy, they're beautiful."

They reached the pet store and walked in.  A tall man came up to them.  "Can I help you with anything?"

Allora smiled.  "Yep.  I'm looking for a macaw."

The man smiled back.  "Ah, a macaw.  I'll show you our selection.  You must know that we breed all of our own animals and we're known nation-wide for our quality."

The man led them to the back of the store.  The wall was full of large cages of macaws and other exotic birds.  Morrigan shuddered as she looked at all the birds.

"Is there a particular species you're looking for?" the man asked.

Allora looked at the different kinds of macaws that the store had in stock on a marker board above one of the cages.  "Yeah, I think I want a Catalina."

"Ah, a very rare hybrid, but we have two," the man said, leading them to the corner.

Allora looked at a baby one standing alone in the back of the cage.  "Awww, look at that one!"

The man looked at her in surprise.  "Are you sure?  That one is sort of a loner.  Doesn't like humans much."

"A loner?  How cool!  We'll get along great," Allora looked at the macaw with teary eyes.  "That's the one.  I'll take the cage too."

The man smiled.  "I'll ring those up for you."

"And give me a bag of your best food," Allora called.

The man nodded.

"I love it!" Allora said with excitement.

Morrigan was now looking at a litter of black kittens in a cage nearby.  "Can't you get a black cat?  They're so much cooler."

Allora gave Morrigan an impatient look.  "I'm getting a macaw."

"Then I'll get this black kitten with the white tipped tail," Morrigan said, satisfied.

Allora looked at her.  "Really?"

Morrigan nodded.

The man returned.  "That'll be $3750.78, miss."

Allora handed the man the check.

As the man walked away, Morrigan called.  "I want this black kitten with the white-tipped tail."

"Okay, miss.  That's thirty dollars."

Morrigan smiled.  "Here," she said, handing him thirty-one dollar bills, then pulled back her money.  "Uh I also need some food and that box they shit in with the sand."

The man looked at Morrigan slightly cockeyed, then returned with the other things she had asked for.  "That'll be sixty-three dollars and seventy-four cents."

Morrigan nodded and reluctantly added another thirty-three to the pile then smiled to Allora.   "Even with all this junk, my kitty is still less than your damn bird."   

Allora shrugged and the two girls walked out the pet store, both had pets by their side.  Then a thought shot through Allora's head.  "Morrigan, we walked here, didn't we?"

"Yeah so?"  Then the thought hit her, too.  "Oh, shit.  How are we supposed to get home?"  

       "We might as well call Brystol," Allora suggested.

       "Alright," Morrigan agreed, grabbing the pay phone off the receiver.

       "Hello?" Brystol answered.

       "Hey Brys.  Can you pick us up?  We're kind of stranded," Morrigan explained.

       "Sure.  Where are you?"

       "The pet store."

       "What?" Brystol blurted.

       "The pet store on Fifth," Morrigan said meekly.

       "You didn't buy any pets, did you?"

       "Yeah.  Allora bought a macaw and I bought a cat."

       "Ewww.  Doubtful you'll ever get a ride off me with _animals."_

       "Come on.  We're stranded!"

       "You made the choice to buy icky animals, now you have to deal with its ramifications."

       "Alright," Morrigan replied, scared.

       "You can call Johnny I suppose.  He wouldn't mind mangy animals in his car."

       "They're not mangy!" Morrigan defended.

       "I'm sure.  I'll talk to you later," she said, hanging up.

       "Ugh.  That bitch," Morrigan vented.

       Allora bit her lip.  "I guess it's Johnny then."

       Morrigan picked up the phone again and inserted two quarters.

       "Hello?"

       "Hey Johnny.  Can you pick us up at the pet store?  We're kind of stranded here with Allora's new bird and my cat."

       "Sure.  I don't really like cats, though.  You'll have to sit in the back of the truck."

       Morrigan was about to burst.  "Just come already," she screamed through gritted teeth.

       Johnny hung up and Morrigan did as well.

       "He'll be here in a second," Morrigan informed, stroking her cat.

       "What are you going to name it?" Allora asked.

       Morrigan took the cat's face and shoved it near her own.  The cat's body dangled before her.  "Hmm…you look like a… a…Lola.  Yeah, that'll do."

       "Lola.  That's a pretty name."

       "For a pretty kitty," Morrigan said rubbing her nose in Lola's face.

       Allora's macaw squawked loudly in its cage.  "And what are you going to name that?"

       "I dunno," Allora answered.

       Johnny arrived just then in his big black pickup truck.  When he saw the bird he jumped back a bit.  "You didn't say it was tropical," he said, looking nervously at the bird.

       "Macaws are generally tropical," Allora looked puzzled.

       "Is it poisonous?" Johnny asked.

       "No silly."  Allora's face suddenly lit up.  "Hey.  That's a good name.  Poison."

       "It's fitting," Morrigan agreed, climbing into the back of the pickup truck with Lola and all the supplies.

       Allora got into the passenger's side with Poison trying desperately to escape.

       "He seems to like you a lot," Johnny said sarcastically.

       Johnny dropped them both off at Morrigan's.  They both thanked him.

       "Hey, if you guys want to come, Truman and Brystol and I are going bowling tonight."

       "Nah," Morrigan answered.  "I want to get more acquainted with Lola."

       "Su—" Allora began, but stopped at the look Morrigan gave her.  "Thanks anyway.  Maybe some other time."

       "Okay," he said, driving away.


	12. Bowling

"Oh my!  Nothing to wear!" Brystol screamed, throwing outfit after outfit onto the floor.

       She stopped to look in the mirror.  "This may be too dressy for bowling," she noted, looking at the purple jeweled evening gown she was wearing.

       She unzipped it and took it off.  She replaced it with a brown skirt and a dull green top.  She twirled around.  "Perfect!" she declared.

       Just then she heard a car beep outside.  "That must be him," she giggled.

       Brystol ran out the door to greet Johnny.  She smiled sweetly at him.

       "You seem a tad overdressed  for bowling," Johnny said, looking at Brystol skeptically.

       "No matter where I'm going, I always have to look good," she stated wisely.

       She walked over to the passenger door and opened it, only to find Truman sitting there.

       "Oh it's you," Brystol cringed.

       "Did you think you and Johnny were having a date or something?" Truman asked, getting out.

       Brystol climbed into the back, her butt in Johnny's face.  "Oh, sorry.  Accident."

       "I'm sure," Truman smirked.

       Johnny drove them to Bowl-A-Rama, the local bowling alley.  They all got out and walked in.  Brystol moved cautiously toward the shoe counter, looking at the rental shoes as if they would explode at any moment.

       "Yeah, hi."  She smiled at the young man at the counter.  "Um, do you only have those ugly red and white shoes.  Because that would really clash with my outfit," Brystol complained, motioning at her skirt and top.

       "That's it.  Just the red and white," the man said, looking at Brystol strangely.

       "So you don't have any earth tones?  Like maybe moss?  That would be great."

       "Nope," the man replied impatiently.  "Just the red and white."

       "Anything in a heel?  Preferably a two inch," Brystol was getting frustrated.

       "Sorry miss.  Can I get your size now, please?"

       "Alright," she sighed.  "Eight.  But can you at least give me a new, unused pair."

       The man laughed.  "Sorry.  These have all been worn before.  No new ones."

       Brystol stomped her foot.  "Okay."

       "You two?" he asked, looking at Johnny and Truman.

       "Seventeen," Johnny answered.

       "Whoa.  We don't get that out often," the man commented.

       Johnny blushed.

       "I'm a twelve," Truman answered.

       The man went to get all their shoes and returned quickly.  "Here you are."  He pushed the three pairs of shoes toward them.

       Brystol picked hers up daintily and held them a foot in front of her as she walked to their lane.

       They all got their shoes on as Truman typed their names into the scoreboard.

       "Who's Fire, Light, and Water?" Johnny asked, looking up at the television screen.

       "That would be us.  I'm Water, Brystol's Light, and you're Fire."

       "Oh," Johnny replied, embarrassed, yet again.

       "Looks as though I'm up first," Brystol said, getting up and picking up a ball.  "Ugh.  This is so heavy," Brystol nearly fell over from the weight.  "Johnny, do you think you could help?" she asked slyly.

       Johnny got up and helped her carry the ball over to the line.  "Now you're good," he informed, beginning to return to his seat.

       "But Johnny, I forget how to roll the ball," she whined.

       Truman almost gagged as Johnny obliviously returned to Brystol's side.

       "You just go like this," Johnny instructed, putting his hand on Brystol's ball hand and making a rolling motion with it.

       "Uh-huh," Brystol said, as she goggled at Johnny.

       "Now you just do that again, only let go of the ball."

       "Uh-huh," Brystol replied, still staring wide-eyed. at Johnny.  She made no movement.

       "Aren't you going to roll?"

       "Oh," Brystol shook her head, as if getting out of a daydream.  "Sorry."

       She moved to the line, put her hand back and rolled.  The ball almost immediately went into the gutter.

       "Oh darn," she pouted.

       Johnny patted her on the back.  "You'll do better next time."

       "Thanks," Brystol said, taking Johnny's hand.

       "You're welcome," he replied uncomfortably as he took his hand away.

       "Shoot," Brystol whispered.

       Johnny and Truman both had strikes on their first rolls.  It was now Brystol's turn once again.

       She got up and picked up her ball, again with some difficulty.  She smiled at Johnny.  "Can you help me just one more time?  And this time, roll the ball with me."

       "Alright," Johnny sighed, getting up.

       He took Brystol's arm and moved with her to the line.  Brystol continued to look intently at Johnny.

       "Okay, now I'm not going to put much force to this roll, so you do most of the work," Johnny informed.

       "Uh-huh,"

       Johnny put his and Brystol's arms back and made the motion to roll the ball.  Only Brystol wasn't paying attention.  So when the ball was about to leave their hand, it fell on Johnny's foot.

       "AARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!" he screamed, holding his foot and hopping on the other in pain.

       Brystol gasped.  "I'm so sorry!"

       Truman ran to his side.  "Good job, Brys," Truman scolded.  "If you hadn't been flirting with him this wouldn't have happened."

       "You were flirting with me?" Johnny asked, sweat streaming down his face.

       Brystol looked around anxiously.  "Can we get some help here?" she yelled.

       The shoe guy ran over to them.  "Do you want me to call for an ambulance?"

       "No.  We can drive him.  It's just his foot," Truman answered, rather nonchalantly.

       "At least let us take him out there," he said.  "Bill, get over here!"

       A burly man behind the snack counter jogged over.

       "You take his legs, I'll get the upper body," the shoe guy instructed.

       They picked him up, but only a few inches off the ground.  "You know what," the shoe guy said.  "Alan!  Come over here!"

       A young man with significant acne came over from a large rack where he was shining bowling balls.

       "Help me with the upper body," the shoe guy said.

       Each got a shoulder and they finally got Johnny up.

       "It's the black truck," Truman called.

       Brystol was whimpering.

       "You better hope that his foot heals by the regular season," Truman scolded coldly, jogging after the three men carrying Johnny.

       Brystol began crying hysterically as she ran after them.

*****

Idonea glared at the door.  "Where the hell are they?"

       "Calm down," Demisses instructed, absently throwing small fire balls around.

       "Shut up you fool!" Idonea roared.

       Demisses got up and looked into Idonea's eyes menacingly.  "I am sick of how you treat me!  I am of the same blood as you!  I am Superior!"

       Idonea chuckled.  "Have you been rehearsing that?"

       Demisses turned a beat red.  He sent a circle of fire balls at his sister.

       She easily dodged them.  "Would you stop with the fire balls?" she asked, throwing a huge one at him.

       He fell back.

       "Did we miss something?" a female voice asked.

       Idonea seemed agitated.  "Invitara, why are you in human form?  What have I told you about that?"

       Invitara walked up to her.  "I happen to like my human form," she said with her hands on her hips.

       She was quite beautiful.  She was tall and skinny with light mocha colored skin.  Her dark black hair fell to her mid-back.

       "I like it too," a male, a little taller approached.  He had short brown hair and was rather muscular.

       Invitara blushed.  "Thank you Nimius."

       "Get a room."  Another male came into view.  He was shorter than Nimius with blonde hair.  He wasn't very muscular, either.

       Invitara and Nimius glared laughingly at him.

       Idonea looked down at them all with disgust.  "You're late," she declared over Demisses's groans of pain.

       Invitara looked down at him, concerned.  "Is he going to be okay?"

       "Yes," Idonea rolled her eyes.  She threw her hand out and Demisses was thrown out of sight.  "He was becoming an annoyance."

       "Why are we here anyway?" Temerius asked, ignoring the recent event.

       "New assignment."

       "No!" Invitara yelled.  "I really think they were the Ones!"

       "The fact that they were in Hawaii makes no difference I'm sure."

       Invitara looked down at the floor.  "No."

       "Have you seen any improvement in their powers?"

       "No," Temerius answered.

       "Then that is grounds for reassignment!  Your next post is the city of Pittsburgh."

       "Ugh.  There's nothing to do there!" Invitara whined.

       Idonea ignored her.  "There's a new group there.  They just got their powers, but just trust me on this one."

       No one answered.

       "Well then.  Get going.  I want you ready within two weeks."

       They all walked away.

       "Pittsburgh," Invitara shuddered.

       "It can't be that bad," Temerius said.

       "This new group...  I wonder what they'll be like," Nimius pondered.

       "If Idonea has sent us, I'm sure they're good," Invitara commented.

       They continued walking, wondering what this new group would have in store for them.

*****

"Hi, is Truman there?" Brystol asked.

       "No, I'm sorry.  He went down to the tennis courts, Brystol," Truman's mother answered.

       Brystol frowned.  "Okay, thanks Mrs. James."

       "You're welcome, bye."

       "Bye."

       Brystol grabbed her coat and headed for the park.  She nervously walked down the steep hill that led to the tennis courts.  This was going to be difficult.  Truman only did tennis without his instructor when he needed to blow off steam, and Brystol knew that his sessions were never during the fall.  It didn't surprise her to hear the loud whacking of the tennis ball as she neared.

       "Hey," she called.

       Truman let one of the balls being spit out by the machine at the other end go by.  She knew he heard her.

       She opened the gate door and walked to the side of Truman's court's net.  "I'm really sorry for my behavior."

       Truman stopped again.  "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

       "I know.  But you deserve one as well."

       "The doctor said he'll be out for a week.  Do you realize what that means?  Our chances at a top ten ranking are down the tubes because of you.  You know just as much as anyone how important the preseason is," Truman reminded her, returning to his forehand.

       "I know," Brystol admitted.  "Did you tell Allora and Morrigan?"

       "Nope.  I figured I'd give you the honors."

       Brystol bowed her head in shame.  "I guess I'll go now," she looked hopefully up at Truman.  Maybe he'd forgive her.

       "See ya," he said icily.

       Brystol skulked away.  She decided she should stop in at Johnny's.  As she walked she thought of Truman.  He rarely got mad at anyone.  It was only a week, after all.  What could happen in a week?  Before she knew it she had reached Johnny's.  He lived in a large red brick house which was overgrown with moss on the sides and front.  The front yard was well kept and his large black truck sat next to the family sedan in the driveway.  It seemed like a perfect house.  She walked up to the front door and knocked.  Johnny's dad, an even larger and burlier version of his son, answered.

       "Hi, Brystol.  Johnny's in the den," he welcomed, pointing down a long hallway.

       She walked slowly toward the room.  "Hi," she whispered meekly upon entering.

       Johnny smiled at her.  "Hey,"

       Brystol grimaced as she looked at Johnny's swollen foot, which was propped on an ataman, bare and purple.

       "It looks worse than it feels," Johnny informed her as he looked at her expression.

       "Look, I'm really sorry," Brystol began.

       "Don't worry about it.  Can't get mad because you stink at bowling."

       "But…it happened because I…couldn't…I couldn't control myself."

       "I know," Johnny replied soothingly.  "It's really no big deal.  I'll be back on my feet by next week.  There aren't any scrimmages scheduled, so I'll just miss practices."

       Brystol looked confused.  "But Truman said that this hurt our chances at a top ten seed."

       Johnny chuckled.  "We're not going to get a top ten seed, but this isn't the reason."

       "But he seemed so mad."

       "He has been for awhile.  Ever since Morrigan started going with Drake.  And then the powers.  It all piled up I suppose."

       "And I didn't notice," Brystol said gloomily.  "Some friend I am."

       "Hey, don't be like that.  Allora and the others had no idea either.  I just know because Truman told me.  He is my best friend, after all."

       Brystol nodded.  "I suppose you're right."

       "I know I am."

       Brystol dug her foot into the plush carpet.  "But, about today.  I want to apologize not only for your foot, but also my behavior.  My behavior, actually, for some time."

       Johnny looked away.  "I've thought about us too, you know."

       "You have?" Brystol beamed.

       "Of course I have.  But you know that can't be possible.  Not with this whole demon thing.  The time is just not right."

       "So, we're just friends, then?"

       "For now, yes."

       Brystol walked over and gave Johnny a big hug.  Johnny, for the first time, hugged back.

*****

Allora stroked Poison lovingly as he desperately tried to get away.  "Get back here!" she commanded as she held him tighter.  She sighed.  "Silly bird."  She put him in his cage and flopped onto her bed.  Something had been bothering her.  Lately she had been having a different dream than the usual one.  Ever since she got her powers, her dream had changed.  .  She hadn't told anyone about it because they'd all continued having the same old dream from early summer.

Now, rather than a fight and Egypt, she dreamt about a strange light with blue-green eyes that went into her head and read all her  thoughts and feelings.  _Maybe it's just stress…_

She quickly got up and started cleaning her room.  Cleaning always helped clear her thoughts.  And with all that had happened, her room was beginning to look like Johnny's school locker.  After about ten minutes of cleaning, she came upon the outfit she had worn to Trey's lying on her chair.  _I really was a bit harsh.  But why does everything always go back to him? Ugh!_  She had barely spoken to Trey since the "incident" and had really felt terrible about the whole, thing even though she wasn't at fault.  

She picked up her phone and dialed Trey's number.  She couldn't have the group fighting she decided to herself.  So apologizing was a must.

"Hello?" a female voice answered.

"Hi, this is Allora.  Is Trey there?" she asked.

"Just a moment, please," his mother said.  

She heard some muffled sounds and then heard Trey's voice.  "Hi."

"Yeah, hi," she replied.  "Um… I was wondering when that wedding was?  You know, so I could mark it down in my calendar."

Trey nearly choked.  "You mean you're going?"

"Well, yeah.  I told your family I'd go.  And I don't go back on my word," she stated firmly.

"Oh.  Well I'll have to get it from my mom.  Can I give it to you tomorrow in school?"

"Sure.  Uh, bye the way, I'm sorry for how I acted."

"I understand.  You have a lot on your mind and you really didn't need that."

"Yeah.  But I also want you to know that the reason I'm going to that wedding is not entirely because I told your family that I'd go."

Trey froze on the other end of the line.

"Well, it's because I'd like to be your friend, Trey."

Trey didn't know if should be sad or happy.  On one hand, the girl of his dreams wants to be his friend, but then, she didn't want to be his girlfriend either.  "I want to be your friend, too, Allora."

"Good.  I'll see you tomorrow then.  And I'll expect you to have that date for me."

"Yeah.  See you tomorrow.  Bye."

"Bye bye."


	13. Granger

Truman bought his lunch and waded through the crowd to get to their regular table.  He frowned significantly when he saw Drake and Morrigan sitting there, Morrigan feeding grapes to Drake.  He sat his tray down.

       "Hey Tru," Morrigan said, barely glancing at him.

       "Hey Truman," Drake mumbled with a mouthful of grapes.

       Truman merely raised an eyebrow as greeting.  "So, what's up with you guys?"

       "Not much," Morrigan answered, still not making eye contact.

       "You know, you could stop throwing yourself at him for like two seconds to carry on a freaking conversation."

       Morrigan stopped and looked at Truman.  "I'm sorry.  Is something up?"

       "No, just don't want to watch your foreplay, that's all," Truman replied airily.

       "Is it that time of the month Tru?" Drake asked mockingly.

       "No, actually I don't go through menstrual cycles at any time of the month.  I'm afraid I don't have the organs for that."

       Drake blinked in confusion.  He shook himself off and returned an icy glare.  "I thought gay guys were supposed to be nice."

       "I'm not gay," Truman cringed malevolently.

       "Whatever you say," Drake said sarcastically.

       Truman stuck his fork in his still steaming, dripping with fat Salisbury steak and flailed it on Drake's crotch.  Drake's eyes widened in pain.  He got up and pushed the Salisbury steak off.

       Half of the cafeteria was laughing at him.

       "You faggot!  These are new pair of leather pants!" Drake screamed.

       "Um Drake, it's really no big deal.  They're imitation anyway, aren't they?" Brystol interjected as she walked up to them.

       Truman laughed along with the rest of the cafeteria.

       Drake looked around madly.  He then stormed out.

       "Drake!" Morrigan called feebly.  She slouched.  "What has gotten into you Truman?"

       "Nothing," he said getting up and leaving with Brystol.  They sat down at a table not far away with Johnny and the rest of the hockey squad minus Allora.

       "What was that about?" Allora asked Morrigan, sitting down with her lunch.

       "I don't know," Morrigan said, looking at Truman strangely.  "I don't know." 

*****

Drake kicked a few lockers as he left the cafeteria in frustration.  "Stupid fag," he roared.

       In his anger Drake didn't even notice Trey as he knocked him over turning a corner.

       "God, watch where your going you stupid—" Drake growled.  "Oh it's you Trey," Drake calmed down, straightening his pants.

       Trey looked at Drake strangely.  "What happened to your pants?"

       "That faggot Truman threw a Salisbury steak on my crotch."

       Trey began to laugh hysterically, rolling on the floor.

       Drake folded his arms.  "I'm glad you find it funny.  But I, however, didn't find the fact that my designer leather pants have been ruined."

       Trey had regained control of himself and had stood up.  But at this comment he chuckled again.  "Drake, you got those off the clearance rack.  I was with you when you bought those."

       Drake became red with a mixture of rage and embarrassment.  "What is this?  Is everyone an expert on fashion or something?"

       "Anyway," Trey began.  "I have to get to the bathroom and back to English,  I'm getting extra help."  Trey shuddered slightly.

       "Yeah, I'll see ya," Drake said, walking away.

       Drake decided to skip out for the rest of the day.  He had done it numerous times back in Las Vegas, and he really didn't feel like going to French and Biology anyway.  He reached the lobby and looked around for anyone.  It was totally empty.  He walked to the front doors and left.  He wasn't three feet away when he heard the familiar voice of Principal Eggert behind him.

       "Leaving early today, Mr. Grey?"

       Drake winced.  "No.  Just wanted a breath of fresh air, that's all," Drake turned around and walked back to the doors.

      "I think this is grounds for a Saturday detention," Eggert decided.

Drake sighed heavily.  He walked into the school and headed immediately for Eggert's office.

*****

"Okay everyone, let's try this one more time," Bunnie instructed in a squeaky voice.  "Brystol, you're on the top of the pyramid, and Elaine, Jenny, Marie, Ashley B., Ashley C, and Ashley G. are on the bottom.  Sara, Kim, Tiffany L., Tiffany D. and Tiffany C are the middle," Bunnie ran to the middle of the gym and picked up a horn.

       "Okay, bottom!" she bellowed.

       Elaine, Jenny, Marie, and the Ashleys walked over and crouched down in the middle of the gym.

       "Alright, middle!"

       Sara, Kim, and the Tiffanys walked over and climbed on the girls below them.

       "Okay, top!"

       Only Brystol didn't walk over.

       "Where's Brystol?" Bunnie asked, thoroughly agitated.

       "Maybe she went to the bathroom or something," the Tiffanys offered lamely.

       Bunnie tapped her foot on the gym floor loudly.  "She better get here in the next like second."

       Only Brystol wasn't even near the school now.  She was in Morrigan's room with everyone else.  She wasn't even confused by the sudden transfer.  She merely blew her bangs out of her eyes and put her hands on her hips in frustration.

       "What is this about Lydia?" she asked.

       Lydia appeared.  "I need to speak to all of you."

       "Make it quick.  I am missing cheerleading practice," Brystol began.  "I'm the top of the pyramid," she added importantly.

       "Hey, we're missing hockey practice," Johnny and Allora fumed.

       "And I'm supposed to be working on plays," Truman whined.

       "And I'm missing ballet," Morrigan said, grabbing a bathrobe to cover herself. She was always slightly embarrassed in her tutu.

       "Yeah, why aren't you at hockey.  Coach Ryder was pissed," Johnny said.

       Morrigan began to answer but Lydia spoke first.  "That's why you're all here.  I think you guys have too many extracurricular activities."

       "Um, demon fighting doesn't exactly look good on college applications," Brystol said.

       Lydia ignored her.  "I can't keep bailing you guys out.  It's important you try to fit in some training.  The world depends on it."

       Brystol dug her foot into the carpet while Johnny and Allora exchanged shameful looks.  But Truman and Morrigan didn't seem to be buying it.

       "Didn't you say there are other groups like us?" Truman asked.

       "Yes," Lydia answered.  "But…"

       "So you don't have to put all that pressure on us if there are others too," Morrigan said.

       "Actually I do.  If you guys turn out to be the Chosen Ones, you have to be prepared…  Oh yes, the Chosen Ones… well I'll explain that later."

       "Hey wait a minute!" Johnny questioned.  "Where's Trey and Drake?"

       They all just now noticed that Trey and Drake weren't there.

       Lydia blushed.  "My power isn't strong enough to transport you all."

       "Oh," Brystol said.  "Then maybe you should do some training as well."

       "Brystol," Allora whispered harshly.

       "No, it's alright.  I will train.  But that isn't the issue right now.  Please promise me you'll train.  That clearing is the perfect place."

       "How about on Sundays around four.  That alright with everyone?" Allora suggested.

       Begrudgingly, they all agreed.

       "Thank you," Lydia said and with a wave of her hand they were brought back.

*****

Allora sat in the nearly empty girls' locker room vaguely brushing her rosy red hair into a ponytail.  She tucked the ponytail inside her hockey helmet, and proceeded to begin to put her pads on.  Next to her was Morrigan.   Morrigan was putting her helmet over her long blonde hair with purple streaks, not bothering to put it into a ponytail.  They were unusually quiet as they suited up.  Just then Brystol walked in, smiling.        "What's with the uniform?" Allora asked, seeing Brystol wearing her blue and gold cheerleading uniform.         "Tryouts today.  The squad and I have to pick Elaine's replacement," Brystol said happily, beaming at them.        "Who's Jane?" Morrigan asked, though her tone led to believe she could care less. 

       "She hurt her leg the other day in practice.  She'll be out for the rest of the season," Brystol explained.

       "There's a cheerleading season?  I thought you just jumped up and down at football games and stuff," Morrigan mocked.

       Brystol scowled.  "The football games are just a small part of it.  That's basically a warm up for us.  The season is national championships.  We won a few years back, but last year Granger won, of course," Brystol explained, as if it was very hard to talk about.

       "Oh," Morrigan said, a little surprised.  "Good luck trying people out and stuff."

       "Yeah, thanks.  I just wanted to wish you guys luck with the scrimmage.  Hope you win!"

       'Thanks," Allora replied.

       Brystol left and Morrigan and Allora went up to the cold ice rink.  Today the Jefferson Memorial Ice Demons was facing their arch rival, the division  leading Granger High Wizards.  The Wizards were led by a tough, speedy senior center Colin Trent.  Allora had met him numerous times at All-Star games and found it very hard to play against him.  On top of the fact he was the hardest center in the state to play because of his hard-hitting checks, he was also extremely rude and arrogant.  Allora always seemed to have her worst games against Granger, and was especially dreading today's scrimmage.  Allora and Morrigan glided over to the rest of their team.   They reached their team.

       "What's up?" Drake asked, looking worriedly at Morrigan.

       ""Nothing," Morrigan replied shortly, skating over to her defensive post.

       "What I say?" 

       The horn to signify the start of the game blew.  The players skated quickly to their positions.  Allora glided to the center.  Colin smiled at her devilishly.  They both got in position to gain the face off.  Colin then whispered something to Allora that made her clench her stick, almost to the point of breaking it.  The referee blew his whistle and dropped the puck.  Allora slapped it quickly to her left wingmen, Trey, and proceeded to knock Colin to the ice.  Trey was slightly taken aback by the quick pass, but quickly passed it to Drake, who was streaking down the center of the ice toward the goal.  Colin tried to check Drake when he received the puck, but Johnny got to Colin first, checking him hard to the ice.  Colin swore loudly as Drake scored an easy goal.

The rest of the period was very physical.  Morrigan was being thrown around even more than usual and seemed to be feeling the effects, as she hobbled to the bench when the whistle to end the period rang.  Trey and the other wingman, Drake, were both unable to get the puck because of Granger's tight defense.  Allora continued to win face offs, but was unable to do much with any of them.  As they made their way to the locker room, they definitely were glad to have gotten the early goal.  When the team had assembled in the boys locker room the coach began his intermission pep talk, though he seemed to be too nervous to speak.  He paced around the players, opening his mouth every once in awhile, but never saying any tangible words.  After the fifteen minutes, he simply pointed toward the door and they all went back to the ice.  On the other side of the rink the Granger team came out, all of them looking a little too smug than a losing team should.  Colin Trent sniggered at them.  Allora didn't like his behavior at all.  She thought something might be up, but decided best to keep her mind on the game, or at least try.

The second period started rather uneventfully.  Each team seemed wary to advance too much on the other.  Finally Johnny became restless with the safe passes and decided to start pressuring for a goal.  He descended upon the Granger side, and looked to have clear path to goal, until two Granger defensemen began hurtling toward him at opposite sides.  They collided into him, as Johnny fell to the ice, limp.  The referee blew his whistle and the trainers skated quickly onto the ice.  Allora and Morrigan skated quickly over, but were pushed back by the trainers.  Drake, Mike and Trey were a little back from the others, looking slightly dumbstruck.  The rest of the team was looking malevolently at the Granger squad.  They all looked very happy with themselves, especially Colin Trent.  The trainers were now placing Johnny on a stretcher.  Allora skated to Johnny's side.  He looked up at her and smiled stupidly.

"I'll be okay.  I'll be back for the third period, I promise.  Honestly.  I'm a quick healer."

"Don't worry about it, Johnny.  Just get better," Allora said, fighting back tears.

The referee blew his whistle again and the players all went back to their positions.  Allora had never been more determined to win a game in her life.  She won the face off and passed it quickly to Drake.  Drake barreled down the ice, flinging a puck across the ice to Trey who hit a hard slap shot right at goal.  The puck soared through the air, hitting the back of the net as the siren to signify the goal blew.  The team raised their hands in celebration, more for vindication than elation.  This seemed to make Granger very mad as they all looked almost murderous as they returned to their positions.  This time Trent won the face off.  He passed it to one of the Granger girls who was immediately floored by Drake.  He took handle of the puck and passed it to Allora.  Allora smiled as she saw a clear path to goal.  She shot the puck, but as soon as the puck had left her stick she was checked hard by Colin Trent.  She fell to the ice.  Before she lost consciousness she made sure she got the goal.  She did.  

*****

       Allora opened her eyes to find herself in the school nurse's office.  Next to her, sat Johnny, staring at her intently.  She rubbed her arm and sat up, which brought a ringing to her ears and a banging to her head.  

"Careful!" Johnny warned.  "You have a mild concussion."  He let out a sigh as he touched his own injured head gingerly.  "I happen to have one, too."

"Damn that Colin Trent!" Allora cursed, but then regretted that, as a sharp pain seemed to stab her brain.  "Anyways, Johnny, how'd the game go?" she asked in a slightly less violent manner. 

"Well, actually you haven't been out for all that long.  It's the beginning of third period and we're down by four."  Then he lifted a finger to point at a small TV screen in the corner of the room on which the game was being played.  "The meds put it on for me."

Allora watched in awe as she noticed who had taken over her position as center.  "Jeremy Baliff?  They used Jeremy Baliff as my substitute?  He's too scrawny to stand up to Trent!  He's going to be pulverized!"

Johnny swallowed.  "Well, you see, Jeremy wasn't your original substitute.  Mikwoski was, and then Boznic.  It seems no one can stand up to Colin Trent's heat.  Not even you.  Hey, but that's nothing to be ashamed of, you're considered to be the forth best center in our area by the local scouts."

Allora folded her arms and raised an eyebrow at Johnny.  "Forth best?  That's it?"

"What do you mean?  That's really good!"

"Well what are you ranked?" Allora enquired, arms still folded, and eyebrow still raised.

"Uh…I don't remember…" Johnny mumbled, obviously trying to lie.

"Spill it!" she snarled.

"Okay, okay, number one."

Allora huffed, feeling hurt.  "Okay, we both know Colin Trent has the number one spot, and Guy, well although his team isn't as good as us, is also pretty good, but other then those two, whose better than me?"

Johnny scratched his head.  "I believe it's Maurice Abdul of the Georgetown Rats."

"Abdul!  They think Abdul is better than me?  Well, I'll show them!"  Allora spotted her gear in the corner of the room and grabbed it and proceeded to leave the nurse's office.  

"What are you doing?  You can't leave in your condition.  Trust me, I tried.  The paramedics are drinking coffee right outside the door."

Allora turned around and leaned in the doorway.  "Then try again."  She walked over to the window in the back of the room and carefully opened it, trying not to make any sounds.

Johnny grabbed his gear and headed over the window.  "Well I certainly can't let you take all the glory."

"I knew you'd go," said Allora.  "But there's something you should know, I don't care if we win or loose.  I'm getting my revenge."

"On Colin Trent?"

"No. On those damned know-it-alls who seem to think Abdul is better that me."  And with that, Allora slid out the window.


	14. The End of the Begining

Morrigan slammed her stick off the ice.  "This has been the longest game of my life.  We can't fucking win without Allora and Johnny!" she screamed at Johnny's replacement.

Johnny's replacement, whose name was Fred McClellan simply stared, staying focused on the game.  Morrigan threw her hands up in the air.  "I give!" she yelled as she began to skate off the ice.  

Coach Ryder stared at her in disbelief.  "Downs!  What do you think you're doing?"

Morrigan laughed hysterically.  "I have no idea!"

Ryder's eyes nearly popped out of his head.  "Get the hell off the ice!  Novak –"

"Call a time out."  Ryder and Morrigan's eyes both simultaneously darted looking for the familiar voice.

"What?  Allora is that you?" called the coach, still searching.  He turned to the referee.  "Time!"

"Up here!" yelled Johnny.  The Ice Demons and Coach Ryder glanced up at the stands behind them, as well as Truman who had just returned from the snack counter with food for himself and Coach Ryder.  

Coach Ryder gasped.  "The paramedics said you two were pretty banged up.  What are you doing here?"

"We came to play." Allora said while glaring at an astonished Colin Trent.

"Yeah!" cheered Johnny.  "So uh, would you mind helping us down? Security wouldn't let us get near the ice."

*****

The game was over, and Granger won it 7-4 - which was no surprise.  But JM had their own little victory of sorts.  They managed to knock out five Wizards versus the four Ice Demons that Granger had, plus they got into seven fist fights.  JM was never an overly aggressive team, and they usually respected their rivals such as Bishop-Mason.  But, naturally, Granger was a different story. 

Johnny hadn't driven to the game, so in order to get a ride from Brystol, who drove her mom's caravan on game days, they had to walk up the hill that separated the Ice Palace from JM.  This was because Brystol refused to park in the Ice Palace lot saying that if her mom's van got dinged she'd spaz and she's be grounded for weeks, and that she preferred to park close to the gym when she had cheerleading.  "That was a pretty impressive comeback you guys," Trey gushed as he gazed at Allora.  

"Oh, thanks," answered Johnny with a tired expression on his face as he dragged his exhausted body up the hill from the Ice Palace towards the school.

"Yeah, thanks," Allora sighed as she walked up the hill in a rather similar manner to that of Johnny's.  

Morrigan grabbed Allora's bag.  "I've got it, hon."

"Thanks."

When the six finally reached the top of the hill, they found Brystol, still clad in her cheerleading outfit, had been left to finish cleaning up the gym from tryouts.

"Bunnie Ramone!  That bitch!" she complained.  "She stuck me with the job of cleaning up after the tryouts."  Brystol stomped her foot angrily on the floor.

Truman looked around the room skeptically.  "Really, Brystol, I don't see what's the big deal.  The gym looks fine to me.  All you have to do is move a few chairs and a table and you're finished, right?"

Brystol folded her arms across her chest and snarled.  "WRONG!  I also have to mop the floor.  The entire gym floor!  Ugh!  The janitors are off today, just my luck."

Trey stuck his hands in his pockets and walked over towards the table.  "I'll tell you what, Brystol, I'll help you out."

Drake walked over towards Trey and picked up one end of the table.  "You get the other end, Trey," he instructed.

Trey picked up the other end of the table and the two boys left the gym to move the table back into the café from where it had come.

"What about you three?" Brystol asked, with her hands on her hips, looking at Johnny, Morrigan, and Allora, who sat on the bleachers.  "Don't tell me.  You're tired from the game?"

Morrigan smirked.  "Actually, we are.  Granger really beat us around today.  We are only a team of sophomores."  Then she pointed to Johnny and Allora.  "And those two have concussions."

"Of course," Brystol said as she struggled to pick up a chair.

"What about me?"  Truman enquired from behind her.

Brystol turned around.  "Oh, Truman, uh… you can um…"

Truman narrowed his eyes at Brystol as he picked up the remaining chair, bringing it high above his head.  "Where does this go?" he queried.

Brystol's jaw dropped.  "Truman, I…"

"I play tennis.  Very well, in fact," he stated, his expression still smug.

"Okay, then," Brystol replied as she walked out of the gym towards the school, still a bit shocked, "follow me."

Truman followed Brystol and they both left.

"Brystol is so oblivious sometimes," Morrigan growled, looking to Johnny and Allora.  "Truman won JM a third place state championship in tennis last year.  It just goes to show you how shallow cheerleaders are about sports that don't involve them.  Although, I did think Brystol knew about Truman and Tennis.  Oh, well."

Allora shook her head in agreement.  "I must say, I was a bit disappointed in the publicity the event got last year.  Our tennis players are pretty good.  They deserve the school's support.  They are athletes, too, after all."

"Unlike our football team," Johnny chuckled as he laid back against the bleachers.  "You know, these things are pretty comfortable when you're tired."

Allora and Morrigan laid back as well, and all three closed their eyes.

*****

"I still can't believe you got us locked in here, Drake!"  Brystol fumed.

"How was I supposed to know the café doors would lock if I closed them?" he sulked.  

       "Common sense, Drake," Truman yelled.  "All school doors do that!"

       "Guys, let's not fight," Trey began.

       Drake, Brystol, and Truman looked at Trey.  "Shut up!" they shouted in unison.  

Trey quivered, pulling his flannel from around his waist over his shoulders.  "Sorry, jeez."

"Really, though," Drake said.  "It's not my fault entirely.  We've been in here nearly forty-five minutes and where are Morrigan, Allora, and Johnny?  Shouldn't they have come looking for us?"

"Well, maybe they got tired of waiting for us," Truman suggested.

"Yeah!  People do have lives!" Brystol added, now nearly in tears.

"Maybe the demons got them," Trey offered lamely while sitting on a table top.

"Shut up!" the other three again responded.

"I bet it was Johnny's fault that they left," Drake started.  "I bet he made them go home to watch some stupid hockey game on TV.  He's so ignorant sometimes that he leads me to believe that he's slightly retarded."

"It was so NOT Johnny's fault that they left!" Brystol declared defiantly.  "He would never leave me stranded.  He said so himself!"

"And Drake," Trey said, "it's the beginning of October.  Hockey season hasn't started yet."

Drake grumbled and folded his arms.  "You're supposed to be on my side!"

Brystol laughed.  "Shot down by your own cousin and best friend.  Don't you feel like an idiot?  Anyways, I bet its Morrigan.  She's always causing problems.  She probably took poor Allora and Johnny to her house to convert them to Satanism or something."

"Not likely!" Truman shot at Brystol, eyes flaring.

"Well who else's fault could it be?  Certainly not Allora's.  She's too… I don't know, Allora-ish!"

"Hey, watch it!" complained Trey.

Brystol sneered at Trey.  "Like I was saying!  The last person left to blame is Morrigan!"

"Well it's not her fault.  She wouldn't leave me here." Truman pouted.

"You mean she wouldn't leave me here." Drake shot, glaring at Truman.  "Can I make a suggestion, Tru?" he asked, but gave no time to answer, for he continued with, "Good.  Let me make a suggestion.  Let me handle the defense of MY girlfriend."

"Well she's my best friend!" Truman yelled, feeling adrenaline rushing through his blood.

"That may be so, but who was she supposed to go home with tonight?  Certainly not you!"

"Supposed is the key word here!  And she's not with you either!" Truman then paused.  "What exactly do you mean by her going home with you tonight, anyway?"

Drake smirked.  "Use your imagination, Tru."

"You bastard!" Truman screamed.  "Don't you even touch her!"

Both boys subconsciously walked closer to each other until they were in each other's faces.

"You wanna try to stop me, gay man?" Drake instigated.

"Perhaps.  It's not like you could do much.  Unless you intend on blinding me to death."

Drake growled.  "We'll see about that."

Trey walked over to Drake.  "If you touch Truman, you know, Morrigan would never forgive you.  It's not worth it, man."

Truman turned his gaze to Trey.  "Are you suggesting this ruffian could take me?"

"Well, not really, Truman, but he does have two inches over you and about thirty pounds."

Brystol was really starting to get worried.  She was the only who really knew Truman.  He was never this violent.  She carefully walked over to Truman and put a hand on his shoulder.  "Truman, this pig is so not worth it.  I'm sorry I underestimated you earlier today and blamed us getting locked in here on Morrigan.  We all know who's fault it is.  Mine for getting you all involved.  So forget it."

Truman sighed and retreated.  "Okay, Brystol, I suppose you're right."  He turned and began to walk to the opposite side of the cafeteria.

"Hah!  That's the way it's supposed to be gay man!" Drake cheered.

Truman turned around and lunged.  Drake fell to the floor under the impact of Truman's body on his.  Truman raised his right fist, but Trey grabbed it.  "Truman, don't!" he screamed.  Truman once again regained his control, and began to get off of Drake.  But Drake wasn't finished.  He punched Truman right in the jaw and forced him off completely, now bringing Truman to the floor.  Truman felt his mouth to find his lip was bleeding.  Tears began to dwell up in his eyes but he held them back.  Drake got up off the floor and laughed sadistically.  "Stupid fagot!"

Truman held his mouth and curled up in a ball on the floor.

Trey couldn't believe the way Drake had just acted, and knelt by Truman's side.  "Are you okay, man?  I'm so sorry."  He stood up and looked at Drake angrily.  "You asshole!" and with that been said, Trey grabbed Drake's coat collar and threw him against the wall.

Brystol began to cry hysterically as she then ran to Truman's side.  "Tru, are you okay?  Kill him Trey!"

Trey brought Drake up to his eye level, being that Drake was a little shorter than him. "Don't you ever do that again Drake," he commanded in a very un-Trey-like manner.

Drake smirked and Trey dropped him.  Then Trey turned around to find Drake laughing at Truman yet again.  So, Trey used all his force and uppercut Drake under his jaw and watched as Drake fell to the ground unconscious.

       Trey walked over to the door and opened it.  "I'm outta here."

       "Trey!  How did you open the door?" asked Brystol still holding Truman.

       Trey blinked in confusion.  "It wasn't locked… anymore."

       Brystol helped Truman up and looked over at Drake.  "Let's go…"

*****

       "Damn them!" screamed Morrigan as she summoned a Golem Hand attack at an oncoming brownish colored demon.  "Where did they go?"

       "Do you think we'd know?" asked Allora, blocking a punch from a blue colored demon.  

While Brystol, Trey, Truman, and Drake had been locked in the cafeteria, a band of demons had attacked the sleeping Morrigan, Johnny, and Allora.  The fight had been going on for about ten minutes and our poor heroes were not fairing well.  There were, after all, only three very tired hockey players, and five demons.

Johnny pounded his metal knuckled fists into another slightly darker blue demon's chest.  "Well wherever they are, they'd better come soon.  I can't hold up much longer and my head hurts like a son-of-a-gun."

"But, guys, have you noticed, only three demons are fighting us," Allora pointed out as she threw a lightening bolt at the lighter blue demon.  "And weren't there five demons in the beginning?  I only count four here."

Johnny glanced up from his demon bashing and saw a noticeably familiar demon sitting on the bleachers observing the battle intently.  "That's not very comforting.  I thought there were five demons also.  Do you guys think he may have gotten the others?," he asked as he did his best to conjure a fire ball at the demon he was fighting.  But, he was simply too tired to control it and it hit the bleachers next to the demon.

He stood up abruptly, looking rather peeved.  "All right," the demon commanded in a deep but rather annoying voice. "It's time to finish them off.  I have to attend a meeting with Validus about a certain group of humans in Connecticut."

The three demons said something between themselves in what almost looked to be a mocking manor as the commanding demon disappeared in a ball of flames.

"Were they just mocking him?" Morrigan enquired as she and the others regrouped.

"I was thinking the same thing." Allora stated as she frowned despairingly at her ripped battle outfit.  

Johnny looked at his own outfit.  "I hope these things are insured."  

Morrigan then elbowed Allora.  "Why do you think they're just standing there?" she asked, pointing to the demons who looked they were in no hurry.

Allora, now trying to arrange her battle outfit in a way that wasn't revealing, looked up.  "Well, when that other demon left, those three kinda just stopped fighting us.  Realistically speaking, we really aren't much of a threat to them.  They have only been playing with us, after all."

Morrigan's eyes widened.  "Playing with us?  What do you mean?"

Johnny glared at Morrigan cock-eyed.  "You mean you never noticed?  You give us more credit than we deserve."

Allora folded her arms.  "Three tired, teenage hockey players with almost no experience at demon slaying cannot hope to win a battle against three experienced demonic warriors."

The dark blue demon walked over to the three as the other two demons began lounging on the remaining bleachers that had not been charred.  "Good guess, girl," he complimented in a raspy voice.  "You three really aren't much of a challenge.  See, we're just waiting for one of our comrades to arrive with the rest of you so we can get rid of you all at once.  And don't take it personally.  We really don't want to kill you.  In my opinion, you're a waste of our time.  But, orders are orders, even they come from Validus's crony, Demisses."  The demon then turned around to find Brystol, Truman, and Trey being shoved into the gym by the missing fourth demon who was a dark shade of forest green.

"Stop shoving!" shrieked Brystol.  "If my cheerleading uniform gets ripped, I'm gonna go postal."

"Just shut up and get into the middle of the gym," the green demon said.  "And you three as well."

Allora, Morrigan, and Johnny eyed each other, but walked to the center of the gym as told.

Morrigan looked at Brystol and sneered.  "Had you changed into your battle outfit, you wouldn't have had to worry about your stupid little cheerleading uniform."

Brystol growled.  "Well I haven't gotten mine yet!"

Johnny blushed.  "Oh, sorry, Brys, the stuff's in my car still.  I keep forgetting." 

Morrigan glared at Truman and Trey.

Truman hit his head.  "I knew we forgot something…"

"Hey… Where's Drake?" Allora began.

 "Ahem," the light blue demon interrupted.  "This is what we're going to do: first we'll lock you in separate rooms all over the school.  All which have no windows, cause I've already scoped them out, and uh, we're gonna this here building on fire and you'll either burn or suffocate to death.  'Cause you see, normally we would fight you, but that just doesn't fit into our current schedule.  We have tickets to the Steelers game that starts in like an hour so uh, be good little humans and do as we say."

Brystol smiled sweetly.  "Schedule dilemmas don't we all have them?  Um, speaking of schedules.  Killing me, really doesn't fit into MY schedule."  She took a thick planner out of her purse and opened to the current date, then turned to the next day.  "And tomorrow doesn't look good either."  She continued to flip through her planner and shake her head.  "I'm really sorry.  This just isn't working for me.  How about you kill me… never?"

The green pushy demon laughed.  "Nice try, but we have to do our job."

Brystol shoved her planner back into her purse and sighed.  

Trey looked at Brystol's purse in amazement.  "How do you fit all that stuff into that little blue purse?"

Brystol raised her finger.  "One word.  Organization."

The demons looked at each other and burst out laughing.  "These humans are too much, I tell you." said the brownish demon.

Brystol turned to her friends and nodded towards the exit and mouthed the word "run".  So, all six began to run towards the door, but were stopped abruptly by the dark blue demon.  "I think not."  He waved his hand and suddenly all of them found themselves in separate school rooms all with the doors locked and no windows – just like the demons had said.

Outside the school, the four demons hovered above it and formed fire balls nearly fifty feet in diameter each above their heads.  "Ready, aim, fire!" they yelled in unison as the fire balls raced towards the school.  

When the fire balls finally did hit the school, the six teenagers could feel the whole building shook with the impact of each ball.  Instinctively, they each ran for the door and started hammering on it, but they all knew inside their gut, that they were trapped.  

Trey felt really bad about Drake right then.  He knew that Drake quite possibly could have already been dead, and it would have been all his fault.  But before he could dwell on that thought, Drake was standing right in front of him, rubbing his sore jaw.  Trey turned himself in a circle to find all of his other comrades were there too.  Then it hit him.  _Where am I_?  Then he saw the Ice Palace.  They were in the Ice Palace parking lot.  "How did we get here?" he asked.  

Morrigan pointed to her shoulder.  "Lydia saved us."  There, sure enough, on Morrigan's shoulder stood Lydia, breathing heavily.  

"Transporting humans isn't exactly a faerie's greatest power.  It's really a strain for me to transport all of you like this.  I was really surprised to find that I could do it with the time permitting," she explained.  "But I'm glad you are all okay.  You all must be able to handle yourselves in a situation like that.  I can't do that all the time, like I have been."

Allora walked over towards Lydia and Morrigan.  "Thank you, Lydia.  We won't let that happen again."

Johnny walked over to Lydia as well.  "I'm sorry we ever doubted you."

Lydia smiled.  "That's okay.  But what are we to do about that?"  Lydia motioned towards the burning school as the sound of fire trucks filled the air.

"It's not our problem," Drake said.  "But what is our problem is that we're going to be separated.  Whenever something like that happened back in Vegas, kids were usually shipped off to neighboring public schools."

Trey gulped.  "He's right, guys.   But what are we supposed to do?"

Allora felt a dozen eyes fall upon her.  She gripped her head and shook it violently.  "I don't know.  Let's sleep on it.  I mean, we can't control what happens at this point.  It's in the school district's hands.  Let's just hope we don't get blamed for this."

The group's eyes fell to ground.  "I agree, Allora," Truman replied.  "So let's go home."

So each one, human or Faerie, turned in their separate direction and slowly trudged home.


End file.
